LA Times Crossword 10 Feb 23, Friday - LAXCrossword.com (2023)

Today's Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Over

1 Hullabaloo: THIS IS THIS

Our word hullabaloo, meaning riot, is a derivative of the older term hollo-ballo. "Hollo-ballo" was a word used for a riot in northern England and Scotland.

5 Regionals Spinoff mit LL Cool J: NCIS: LA

NCIS is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that investigates crimes in the US Navy and Marine Corps. The service lends its name to the CBS TV show "NCIS," a spin-off drama from "JAG" that first introduced the main characters of "NCIS." The big star of NCIS is actor Mark Harmon. NCIS is now a franchise with spin-off shows NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans.

Rap star LL Cool J was born James Todd Smith. Smith's stage name stands for "Ladies Love Cool James". When he's not rapping, LL Cool J plays Special Agent Sam Hanna on the TV show NCIS: Los Angeles.

11 detergent brand: FAB

Fab is a laundry detergent introduced by Colgate-Palmolive but sold to Phoenix Brands in 2005.

15 Led Zeppelin drummer John: BONHAM

John Bonham was the much admired drummer for the English band Led Zeppelin. In 2011, Bonham was voted the best drummer of all time by readers of Rolling Stone magazine. Bonham died in 1980 at the age of 32 after choking on his own vomit. In the 24 hours before his death, the coroner determined that Bonham had drunk 40 shots of vodka.

Led Zeppelin was an English rock band formed in 1968. The band's most famous release has to be the classic "Stairway to Heaven". Led Zeppelin disbanded after drummer John Bonham was found dead in 1988.

17 * Sailing-inspired athletic apparel brand based in Montana? : HELENAUTICA (Helena & Nautica)

Helena is the capital of the state of Montana and is known as the Queen City of the Rockies. Helena's main street has a very colorful name, namely Last Chance Gulch.

Nautica is a clothing brand co-founded by designer David Chu in 1983.

19 LG-Rival: RCA

RCA was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America and a wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric (GE). GE sold RCA in 1932 and reacquired the company in 1986. Today RCA is just a brand name of Sony Music.

LG is a very large South Korean manufacturer of electronics, chemicals and telecommunications products. The company used to be known under the name Lucky-Goldstar, which is where the initialism “LG” comes from.

21 Ballet Movement: PLIE

The French word for "curved" is "plié". The ballet movement known as a plié involves bending the knees. A demi-plié is a similar move, but with less bending of the knees. A fondu is similar to a plié, except that only one leg remains on the floor.

22 __-Magnon: CRO

Remains of early humans dating back 35,000 years ago were found at Abri de Cro-Magnon in southwest France, giving the name to these early humans. Cro-Magnon remains are the oldest human relics discovered in Europe.

28 tire total: TREY

A trey is a three in a deck of cards. The term "Trey" can also be used for a three-eyed domino and even a three-point game in basketball.

Basketball is truly a North American sport. It was founded in 1891 by Canadian James Naismith at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. His goal was to create something active and interesting for his students in the gym. The first "hoops" were actually peach baskets with the bottoms of the baskets intact. If a player got the ball in the 'net', someone had to climb up and retrieve the ball to continue the game!

29 *Luxury watchmaker based in Washington? : OLYMPIAGET (Olympia & Piaget)

Olympia is the capital of the state of Washington and is located in the Puget Sound region. The city's name was chosen in 1852 and refers to the view of the Olympic Mountains to the northwest.

Piaget is a Swiss manufacturer of high quality watches and jewellery. The company was founded in 1874 by Georges Piaget to manufacture pocket watches and high-precision movements.

32 Actress Gemstone: LISA

Lisa Gem is the actress who played the role of Dr. Lisa Cuddy stars in the excellent TV series House. I remember seeing her character do a difficult yoga pose in one of the "House" episodes. It turns out that in real life, Gemstone is an avid practitioner of Mysore-style Ashtanga Yoga, an ancient practice.

33 T. rex and others: DINOS

The most popular dinosaurs portrayed in the films, especially the older ones, are the tyrannosaurs and the allosaurus. They look very similar, the former being the really big guy. One difference between the two is that they weren't there at the same time. The Allosaurus existed during the Jurassic period, but the T. rex did not appear on Earth for about 100 million years during the Cretaceous period.

34 *Sports company based in Hawaii? : HONOLULULEMON (Honolulu & LULULEMON)

Honolulu is Hawaii's largest city and the state capital. Located on the island of Oahu, the name "Honolulu" means "place of refuge, quiet haven, sheltered bay" in Hawaiian.

Lululemon Athletica is an athletic apparel brand founded by Chip Wilson in 1998 and is headquartered in Vancouver. The name of the company is particularly linked to the activity of yoga. Every Lululemon store offers a weekly free yoga class.

39 Dwarf planet in the asteroid belt: CERES

Ceres is the smallest dwarf planet in our solar system. Discovered in 1801, it is the largest body in the asteroid belt and the only asteroid classified as a dwarf planet. Ceres was ranked as the eighth planet orbiting our sun for 50 years. Launched by NASA, the Dawn spacecraft entered orbit around Ceres in March 2015 and was the first mission to study a dwarf planet up close.

The vast majority of asteroids in the solar system are found in the main asteroid belt, which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Four large asteroids (Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygeia) make up about half the mass of the asteroid belt and are 400-950 km in diameter. The total mass of the belt is only 4% of the mass of our moon. The larger asteroids are also known as "planetoids".

40 rolled up unannounced? : TP'ED

TP'ing (toilet paper) is a prank that involves covering an object or location with rolls and rolls of toilet paper. If you live in Texas or Minnesota this little "prank" is legal, but if you live here in California it's classified as mischief or vandalism.

41 *High fashion label based in Colorado? : DENVERSACE (Denver and Versace)

Denver, Colorado is nicknamed the "Mile-High City" because its official elevation is exactly one mile. Denver City was founded in 1858 as a mining town. The name was chosen in honor of then-Governor of Kansas James W. Denver.

Gianni Versace was an Italian fashion designer. Versace's death was perhaps as famous as his life. He was murdered in 1997 in front of his Miami Beach mansion by a certain Andrew Cunanan. It is not certain that Cunanan knew who his victim was as this was the latest in a series of five murders he committed over a four month period. A few days after Versace's murder, Cunanan used the same gun to commit suicide.

48 Rival von L'Oréal: CLAIROL

Clairol had been selling hair coloring products to salons since 1931 and then broke through with the introduction of a one-step hair coloring product for home use. As famous as the product was the "Does She...or does not she" ad campaign. Six years after the campaign launched, 70% of women in the US dyed their hair.

L'Oréal is a French cosmetics company, the largest cosmetics and beauty company in the world. Here in the US, L'Oréal operates a Women of Worth program that honors women who volunteer in their communities. The phrase "Women of Worth" underscores the long-standing L'Oréal slogan "Because I'm worth it," which evolved into "Because you're worth it" and eventually "Because we're worth it."

49 Synagogeninstrument: SHOFAR

A shofar is a musical instrument used in Jewish rituals. It is a relatively simple instrument made from the horn of an animal (usually a ram).

51 Some NPR stations: FMS

In telecommunications, a radio signal is transmitted with a sinusoidal carrier wave. Information is transmitted using this carrier wave in two main ways, by varying (modulating) the instantaneous amplitude (signal strength) of the carrier wave and by modulating the instantaneous frequency of the carrier wave. The former is called an AM (“amplitude modulation”) signal and the latter is called an FM (“frequency modulation”) signal.

National Public Radio (now just called "NPR") was formed in 1970 after President Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 into law. The station's first broadcast took place in April 1971 and covered the US Senate hearings on the Vietnam War. The aim of the law was to fund radio and television broadcasts that were not purely for profit. As a long-time fan of the UK's state-funded BBC, I have to agree with that intent...

52 Reid from "American Pie" : TARA

Tara Reid is an actress known for her roles on television and the big screen. I suspect her most famous appearances were in the American Pie film series, where she played Vicky. Unfortunately, Reid succumbed to pressure to change her appearance through plastic surgery. In interviews, she shared that her first experience under the knife "went awry," prompting further surgeries to correct the resulting deformity.

The first of the American Pie sex comedy films was released in 1999. The series now includes several direct-to-video release American Pie Presents spin-off films.

55 Bloodlines: AORTA

The aorta originates in the heart and extends into the abdomen. It's the largest artery in the body.

56 Draft selection: ALE

The many, many different styles of beer can generally be divided into two groups: ales and lagers. Ales are fermented at relatively warm temperatures for relatively short periods of time and use top-fermenting yeasts, i.e. yeasts that float on top of the beer during fermentation. Lager beers ferment at relatively low temperatures and for relatively long periods of time. Lager beers use bottom-fermenting yeasts, i.e. yeasts that fall to the bottom of the beer during fermentation.

57 Good news for investors, as literally seen in the responses to the asterisked clues: CAPITAL GAIN

In the world of business, a capital gain is a gain realized on the sale of an asset.

59 Schnapps, maybe: GIN
47D Schnapps, maybe: BRANDY

A sling is a cocktail of brandy, whiskey or gin sweetened and flavored with lemon. The most famous version of the sling is the Singapore Sling, invented by a bartender at Raffles Hotel in Singapore. I am proud to report that I once had a Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel many moons ago...

60 Golden State: Utopia

The word "Utopia" was coined by Sir Thomas More in his book "Utopia" published in 1516 to describe an idyllic fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. More's use of the name Utopia derives from the Greek "ou" for "not" and "topos" for "place". By naming his perfect island "Not Place," More apparently made it clear that he didn't believe the ideal could actually exist.

61 Swedish soprano Jenny: LIND

Jenny Lind was a Swedish opera singer who was as popular off the stage as she was on. She had many admirers, including the great composers Mendelssohn and Chopin, and the writer Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen wrote three fairy tales inspired by Lind, including one entitled The Nightingale, which ultimately led to Lind becoming known as The Swedish Nightingale.

down

1 concert souvenir: T-SHIRT

A souvenir is a keepsake, a sign of remembrance. We imported "Souvenir" from French, in this language it has the same meaning. The term comes from the Latin "subvenire" and means "to come to mind" or literally "to come forth".

5 Sportorg. mit 30 Franchises: NBA

The National Basketball Association (NBA) was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The NBA name was adopted in 1949 following a merger with the rival National Basketball League (NBL). Of the four major sports leagues in North America, the NBA has the highest average annual salary per player.

6 Clever prank: COUP

A coup d'etat (often just "coup") is the sudden overthrow of a government and comes from the French for "coup d'etat". The Swiss German word "putsch" is sometimes used in place of "coup", where "putsch" literally means "sudden blow". We also use the abbreviated "coup" for "sudden, brilliant and successful deed".

7 Like a global corporation. : INTL

International (intl.)

8 Branch of Islam: SHIISM

The Islamic sects of Sunni and Shia Muslims differ on the belief as to who should have taken the lead of the Muslim faithful after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Followers of the Sunni tradition agree with the decision that Prophet Muhammad's confidant Abu Bakr was the right choice to become the Islamic nation's first caliph. Followers of the Shia tradition believe that leadership should have remained within the Prophet Muhammad's own family, preferring Prophet Ali's son-in-law.

9 Don, as corset: LACE

A corset is a tight-fitting undergarment that is stiffened with a material such as whalebone. Corsets are more worn by women to shape the body. The word "corset" is a diminutive of the Old French "cors", meaning "body".

10 Insightful Reddit session, short: AMA

Reddit.com is a networking and news website launched in 2005. It's essentially a bulletin board system with posts being voted up and down by users, which determines the post's ranking. The name "Reddit" is a pun on "read it," as in "I read it on Reddit." A popular feature of the Reddit site is an online forum that resembles a press conference. Known as the AMA (for "ask me anything"), attendees included President Barack Obama, Madonna, Bill Gates, Stephen Colbert, and Gordon Ramsay, among others. President Obama's AMA was so popular that the heavy traffic brought down many parts of the Reddit site.

11 The Incredible Hulk Star: FERRIGNO

Lou Ferrigno played the Hulk on the TV show The Incredible Hulk of the 1970s and 1980s. Hulk's alter ego in the comics was Bruce Banner, but on the show his name was David Banner and he was played by Bill Bixby.

13 Emmy-Gewinner Arthur: BEA

Actress Bea Arthur's most famous roles have been 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.

18 Abk. in blood groups: NEG

The most important grouping of blood groups is the ABO system. Blood is classified as either A, B, AB, or O depending on the type of antigens on the surface of the red blood cells. A secondary designation for blood is Rh factor, in which other antigens are labeled as either positive or negative. When a patient receives a blood transfusion, the donor blood should ideally be of the same type as the recipient's, as incompatible blood cells can be rejected. However, blood type O-neg can be accepted by recipients with any blood type A, B, AB or O and positive or negative. Therefore, someone with blood type O-neg is called a universal donor.

24 Terrarium foundation : GROUND

A terrarium (plural "terrarium") is an enclosed environment designed to house terrestrial animals. The term "terrarium" derives from the equivalent "aquarium", a tank in which mainly fish are kept. In general, a closed environment for keeping living animals or plants is called a "vivarium".

27 Some CGI creations: ETS

Aliens (ET)

Computer generated imagery (CGI)

30 Joe Burrows Alma Mater: Abk. : LSU

LSU's full name is Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College and is located in Baton Rouge. LSU was founded in 1860 as a military academy with then-Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman as superintendent.

Quarterback Joe Burrow won the Heisman Trophy in 2019 while playing for LSU. In 2020, he was the first overall pick in the NFL draft and signed with the Cincinnati Bengals.

31 Black Sea resort town: YALTA

Yalta is a resort town on the Black Sea on the Crimean Peninsula. Crimea has been in the news in recent years as ownership of the territory is disputed between Russia and Ukraine. Yalta was also in the news at the end of World War II, as it was here that the 1945 Yalta Conference was held between the leaders of the three main Allies.

There are four seas, named after colors in English:

• the yellow sea
• the black sea
• the Red Sea
• the white sea.

35 Tannenkugel: ORNAMENT

The custom of decorating trees at Christmas seems to have originated in Renaissance Germany. These first trees were set up in guild houses and decorated with sweets and sweets for the apprentices and children. After the Protestant Reformation, the Christmas tree became an alternative to the Roman Catholic nativity scene in Protestant households. The Christmas tree tradition was imported to Britain by the royal family due to their German heritage. This tradition spread from Britain to North America.

36 St. Kitts Neighbor: NEVIS

Saint Kitts is the better known name for Saint Christopher Island in the West Indies. Saint Kitts, along with the neighboring island of Nevis, is part of the country known as the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. St. Kitts has had a troubled history in which the Spanish, British and French all vied for control of the island. Most of today's population is descended from slaves who were brought to St. Kitts to grow tobacco and then sugar cane. Most slaves were from Africa, although Irish and Scottish slaves were also used.

37 Scanned bars, in short: UPC

The initialism "UPC" stands for Universal Price Code or Universal Product Code. The very first UPC-labeled item scanned in a store was at 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974 at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. It was a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum.

38 Levis Alternative: Yeast

The Lee company, famous for manufacturing jeans, was founded in 1889 by a certain Henry David Lee in Salina, Kansas.

39 Health Authority based in Atlanta. : CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC began as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities during World War II. The CDC is concerned about much more than malaria these days...

44 Website that regularly features doodles: GOOGLE

Google Doodles are temporary changes to the default logo on the Google homepage, used to commemorate a special day or event. There are also Doodle 4 Google contests where students create their own Google Doodles, with the winning entry going live on Google's homepage for 24 hours.

46 G, PG or R : CLASSIFICATION

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) film rating system (PG-13, R, etc.) is purely voluntary and not governed by law. Cinemas agree to abide by the rules that come with MPAA ratings in exchange for access to new films.

50 Country singer Ketchum: HAL

Hal Ketchum was a country music singer active from 1986 to 2019. In 1998 he was diagnosed with a spinal condition that left him without use of the left side of his body. As a result, he had to relearn how to walk and play the guitar.