LA Times Crossword Answers 8 Dec 12, Saturday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
15. Frankie Carle signature song that became a #1 hit SUNRISE SERENADE
“Sunrise Serenade” was a jazz song written by Frankie Carle with lyrics by Jack Lawrence. “Sunrise Serenade” was recorded by Glenn Miller as an A-side, with the much more memorable “Moonlight Serenade” on the B-side.

19. Ken Jenkins’s “Scrubs” role KELSO
On the TV show “Scrubs”. Bob Kelso M.D. is played by actor Ken Jenkins. Kelso’s wife is Enid, someone he talks about a lot although she is never seen in the show. Enid is described as morbidly obese and neurotic. She was also paralyzed in an accident and uses a wheelchair.

20. __ Bo TAE
Tae Bo isn’t an ancient martial art, but was developed as a form of aerobic exercise in the 1990s. The discipline was introduced by taekwondo expert Billy Blanks who gave it the name Tae Bo, a melding of “taekwondo” and “boxing”.

21. Captain in an 1870 sci-fi classic NEMO
In the 1954 movie version of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, Captain Nemo goes down with his ship. In the novel by Jules Verne the fate of Nemo and his crew isn’t quite so cut and dry, although the inference is perhaps that they did indeed head for Davy Jones’ Locker.

22. “The Colossus” poet PLATH
“The Colossus and Other Poems” is a collection of poetry by Sylvia Plath, first published in 1960.

Sylvia Plath was a poet from Boston, Massachusetts who lived much of her life in the UK where she married fellow poet Ted Hughes. The couple had a tumultuous relationship, and Plath had a long battle with depression. She lost that battle in 1963, committing suicide at the age of 30 years.

24. Cube root of ventisette TRE
In Italian, three (tre) cubed (3x3x3) is twenty-seven (ventisette).

29. Genre that influenced Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album AFROPOP
“Graceland” is the title track and a single from Paul Simon’s 1986 album. Simon’s inspiration for the song was a road trip he took to Elvis Presley’s home of Graceland while getting over his divorce from actress Carrie Fisher.

35. Grandiose, as rhetoric TUMID
The literal definition of “tumid” is “morbidly swollen”. The figurative definition is “grandiose” with reference to prose or rhetoric.

36. Blanc and Pelat MONTS
Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps. The name Mont Blanc translates into “white mountain”. The mountain lies on the border between France and Italy and it has been generally accepted for decades that the summit lies within French territory. However, there have been official claims that the summit does in fact fall within the borders of Italy.

Mont Pelat is a peak in the southern part of the Alps known as the Maritime Alps.

41. First dog walker, maybe SASHA
Sasha is the younger of the two Obama children, born in 2001. She is the youngest child to reside in the White House since John F. Kennedy, Jr. moved in with his parents as a small infant. Sasha’s Secret Service codename is “Rosebud”, and her older sister Malia has the codename “Radiance”.

42. Sidekick role for Bruce Lee KATO
In “The Green Hornet” television series, Kato was famously played by Bruce Lee. The role has been cited as a driving force behind the increase in popularity of martial arts in the US during the sixties.

44. __ Agnew, singer with Celtic Woman CHLOE
Chloë Agnew is a singer from Ireland, best known in North America as a member of the group Celtic Woman.

45. Lake named for a tribe HURON
Lake Huron takes its name from the Huron Native American people that lived by its shores. Early French explorers often called the lake “La Mer Douce”, meaning “the freshwater sea”.

46. Popular household reference since the 1930s, as it’s commonly known THE JOY OF COOKING
Irma Rombauer was the author of the famous cookbook “The Joy Of Cooking”. Rombauer self-published the book back in 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri. She and her family continued to publish privately as demand was high, amd then a commercial printing house picked it up in 1936. “The Joy of Cooking” has been in print continuously ever since.

50. Queen’s genre MYSTERY
The Ellery Queen series of detective novels was somewhat unique in that Ellery Queen was the hero of the tales, and was also the pen name of the author. Actually, the “author” was a pair of writers; two cousins from Brooklyn, New York.

Down
4. City near Sundance PROVO
Provo, Utah is a city located just over 40 miles south of South Lake City. Provo is home to Brigham Young University. The city was originally called Fort Utah, and the name was changed to Provo in 1850 in honor of Étienne Provost. Provost was a French-Canadian fur trader who is thought to have been the first man of European descent to see the Great Salt Lake.

Sundance is a ski resort that lies just over ten miles northeast of Provo, Utah. The resort was named Timp Haven until it was bought over by the actor Robert Redford in 1969. Redford gave it the name Sundance after the part he played in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, a movie released in the same year Redford purchased the resort.

5. Jabber at the table? TINE
That would be one of the tines (points) on a fork.

6. Tip of one’s tongue? -ESE
Many languages have the suffix “-ese”, as in Chinese and Burmese.

9. Notre Dame squad, familiarly, with “the” IRISH
The full name of the Catholic University in Indiana is the University of Notre Dame du Lac (University of Our Lady of the Lake).

10. Florida’s __ Beach VERO
Vero Beach, Florida was the home of spring training for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1948 to 2008 (after which the team moved spring training to Arizona).

11. Coblenz conjunction UND
Koblenz (Coblenz in English) is a city in Germany located at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers. The name Koblenz comes from the Latin “ad confluentes” meaning “at the merging of rivers”.

12. Countrymen who kick off their rainy season with a Rocket Festival LAOTIANS
A Rocket Festival is a ceremony practiced in northern Thailand and Laos near the beginning of the rainy season. The highlight of the festival is the launching of large homemade bottle rockets powered by black powder.

13. Foe of Robert the Bruce EDWARD II
Edward II was King of England from 1307 to 1327. It was Edward II who lost to the Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn. Edward was also the first monarch to found colleges at Oxford and Cambridge.

14. Film noir setting TENEMENT
The expression “film noir” has French origins, but only in that it was “created” by a French critic in describing a style of Hollywood film. The term, meaning “black film” in French, was first used by Nino Frank in 1946. Film noir often applies to a movie with a melodramatic plot and a private eye or detective at its center. Good examples would be “The Big Sleep” and “D.O.A”.

22. “Waiting for __”: Time magazine cover of 5/25/1992 PEROT
Ross Perot was at the height of his presidential campaign in 1992 when he was featured on the cover of “Time” magazine under the title “Waiting for Perot”, a play on the Samuel Beckett drama “Waiting for Godot”.

23. __-Lay FRITO
The Frito Corporation was started in 1932 by Elmer Doolin, basically in his mother’s kitchen. Doolin paid $100 for a corn chip recipe from a local restaurant and started producing Fritos at the rate of 10 pounds per day.

27. Lionfish’s weapon TOXIN
The lionfish is a beautiful but nasty little fish found mainly in Indo-Pacific waters. Some of the lionfish’s spiny fins are venomous.

28. Volkswagen compact JETTA
The name Jetta is one in a series of 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”.

29. First major Civil War battle on Union soil ANTIETAM
The first major battle to take place on northern soil during the Civil War was at Antietam Creek in Maryland. It was also the most bloody one-day battle in American history, with about 23,000 casualties.

30. When Santa calls “Vixen,” in poetry FOURTHLY
In the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” there is a line in which “Vixen” is mentioned “fourthly”:

Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was published anonymously in 1823, and is better known today by its first line “‘Twas the night before Christmas”. Most scholars believe that the poem was written by Clement Clarke Moore, a theologian from New York City. Others say that it was written by Henry Livingston, Jr. a poet from Upstate New York.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash …

32. Screenwriter called the “Shakespeare of Hollywood” BEN HECHT
Ben Hecht had many jobs in Hollywood, but mainly is remembered as a screenwriter. Hecht earned the nickname “the Shakespeare of Hollywood” largely due to the large number of screen credits he received, getting writing credit for about seventy films. Included in the list of screenplays he worked on are “The Front Page”, “Some Like It Hot”, Gone with the Wind” and “A Farewell to Arms”.

36. Arthurian chronicler Sir Thomas __ MALORY
Sir Thomas Malory was an English author known best for compiling “Le Morte d’Arthur” (The Death of Arthur). The collection is based on tales about legendary King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

39. Kicked off the stage, in a game show GONGED
NBC’s “The Gong Show” only ran from 1976 to 1978, but it always seems to be showing somewhere on cable TV. I suppose the show was a forerunner of today’s “America’s Got Talent”, in that it was a talent show in which the acts can be cut off in mid-performance by the sounding of a gong (just like the 3 buzzers on “Talent”). Despite all the terrible acts that appeared, some famous names made it after the show e.g. Boxcar Willy, Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) and Andrea McArdle (played “Annie” on Broadway).

42. Friend of Oliver J. Dragon KUKLA
“Kukla, Fran and Ollie” is an early television show that aired from 1947-1957. Kukla and Ollie (Oliver J. Dragon) were puppets and Fran was Fran Allison, usually the only human on the show.

48. “Now __ the one half-world / Nature seems dead”: Macbeth O’ER
There is a superstition in the theatrical world that uttering the name “Macbeth” in a theater will bring disaster of some sort. To avoid this, the euphemism “the Scottish Play” is used instead.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Got out of a shelter ADOPTED
8. Slender watercourse RIVULET
15. Frankie Carle signature song that became a #1 hit SUNRISE SERENADE
17. Cast off inhibitions LET ONE’S HAIR DOWN
18. Peppy ALIVE
19. Ken Jenkins’s “Scrubs” role KELSO
20. __ Bo TAE
21. Captain in an 1870 sci-fi classic NEMO
22. “The Colossus” poet PLATH
23. Unyielding FIRM
24. Cube root of ventisette TRE
25. Visibly touched TEARY
26. Cyclist’s challenge GRADE
27. Prison periods TERMS
28. Take part JOIN IN
29. Genre that influenced Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album AFROPOP
32. Flees BEATS IT
33. Redirecting sign NO EXIT
34. Irk GET TO
35. Grandiose, as rhetoric TUMID
36. Blanc and Pelat MONTS
37. Bring up the rear LAG
40. Press IRON
41. First dog walker, maybe SASHA
42. Sidekick role for Bruce Lee KATO
43. Itinerary fig. ETD
44. __ Agnew, singer with Celtic Woman CHLOE
45. Lake named for a tribe HURON
46. Popular household reference since the 1930s, as it’s commonly known THE JOY OF COOKING
49. Helter-skelter ALL OVER THE PLACE
50. Queen’s genre MYSTERY
51. Cared for TREATED

Down
1. Italicized ASLANT
2. One who needs a second helping? DUELER
3. Flight board status ON TIME
4. City near Sundance PROVO
5. Jabber at the table? TINE
6. Tip of one’s tongue? -ESE
7. Dorm room buy DESK LAMP
8. Land and buildings REALTY
9. Notre Dame squad, familiarly, with “the” IRISH
10. Florida’s __ Beach VERO
11. Coblenz conjunction UND
12. Countrymen who kick off their rainy season with a Rocket Festival LAOTIANS
13. Foe of Robert the Bruce EDWARD II
14. Film noir setting TENEMENT
16. Wool-gathering aid SHEARS
22. “Waiting for __”: Time magazine cover of 5/25/1992 PEROT
23. __-Lay FRITO
25. Warmish TEPID
26. Fall guys GOATS
27. Lionfish’s weapon TOXIN
28. Volkswagen compact JETTA
29. First major Civil War battle on Union soil ANTIETAM
30. When Santa calls “Vixen,” in poetry FOURTHLY
31. Does over REMODELS
32. Screenwriter called the “Shakespeare of Hollywood” BEN HECHT
34. Opposite of get tough GO SOFT
36. Arthurian chronicler Sir Thomas __ MALORY
37. Rustler’s rope LARIAT
38. Opposite of whenever AT ONCE
39. Kicked off the stage, in a game show GONGED
41. Not as forward SHYER
42. Friend of Oliver J. Dragon KUKLA
44. Pirate’s recess COVE
45. Optimism HOPE
47. Scribble JOT
48. “Now __ the one half-world / Nature seems dead”: Macbeth O’ER

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