LA Times Crossword Answers 15 Aug 13, Thursday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Nine-time Grammy winner Mary J. __ BLIGE
Mary J. Blige is a singer-songwriter from the the Bronx, New York. Her best known album is probably “My Life”, released in 1994. Blige is also making a name for herself as an actress and is slated to play jazz singer Nina Simone in the upcoming biopic “Nina”.

6. Honeyed quaff MEAD
Mead is a lovely drink, made from fermented honey and water.

10. High point ACME
The “acme” is the highest point, coming from the Greek word “akme” which has the same meaning.

14. Pine product 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.

15. Nobel Peace Prize city OSLO
The Peace Prize is the most famous of the five prizes bequeathed by Alfred Nobel. The others are for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. There is also a Nobel Prize in Economics that is awarded along with the original five, but it is funded separately and is awarded “in memory of Alfred Nobel”. Four of the prizes are awarded by Swedish organizations (Alfred Nobel was a Swede) and so the award ceremonies take place in Stockholm. The Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and that award is presented in Oslo.

16. Mount color ROAN
A roan horse has an even mixture of white and colored hairs on the body with the head, lower legs, mane and tail having a more solid color.

17. Kind of elephant ASIAN
There are only three species of elephant living today, with all others being extinct. These are the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant (or “Indian elephant”). As is well known, the African elephant is distinguished from the Asian/Indian elephant by its much larger ears.

20. Wide-headed fasteners T-NUTS
A T-nut is so called because it has a t-shape when viewed from the side.

23. “Danger, Will Robinson!” sci-fi series LOST IN SPACE
“Lost in Space” is a television sci-fi show that originally ran for three season from 1965 to 1968. There was also a “Lost in Space” movie released in 1998. The show was based on a comic book series called “Space Family Robinson”, which in turn was based on the Johann David Wyss novel “The Swiss Family Robinson”. Some oft-repeated lines from the show were uttered by the Robot character, including:

– “Warning! Warning!”
– “That does not compute”
– “Danger, Will Robinson!”

29. Actress Thurman UMA
Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter “Uma” as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name “Dbuma”.

30. __ cotta TERRA
The name “terra cotta” comes to us from Latin via Italian and means “baked earth”. Terra cotta is a ceramic made from clay which is left unglazed. Maybe the most famous work in terra cotta is the Terracotta Army, the enormous collection of life-size figures that was buried with the Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China around 210 BC. I had the privilege of seeing some of this collection when it toured the US a few years ago, and just the few pieces on display were so very impressive.

31. Frequent award for Tiger Woods ESPY
The ESPY Awards are a creation of the ESPN sports television network. One difference with similarly named awards in the entertainment industry is that ESPY winners are chosen solely based on viewer votes.

By now, everyone must know everything there is to know about Tiger Woods. But did you know that Tiger’s real name is Eldrick Tont Woods? “Tont” is a traditional Thai name.

37. “Lincoln” director STEVEN SPIELBERG
The movie director Steven Spielberg has had so many hit movies. Spielberg won two Best Director Oscars, one being “Schindler’s List” from 1993 and “Saving Private Ryan” from 1998. Three Spielberg films broke box office records: “Jaws” (1975), “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982) and “Jurassic Park” (1993). That’s quite a portfolio of movies …

The 2012 movie “Lincoln” is a historical drama that portrays the last four months of the life of President Abraham Lincoln. The main focus in the story is Lincoln’s work to have the US House of Representatives pass the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, the amendment that finally abolished slavery. “Lincoln” was co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field and Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. It’s a film I’d recommend …

44. Group scuffle MELEE
Our word “melee” comes from the French “mêlée”, and in both languages the word means a “confused fight”.

45. Layered haircut SHAG
A shag cut is a layered hairstyle. Meg Ryan was famous for wearing a shag cut for many years.

51. “Inferno” author Brown DAN
Dan Brown is a somewhat controversial author, best known for his 2003 novel “The Da Vinci Code”. I’ve read all of Brown’s books and must say that his early ones were awful. Having said that I loved “Angels and Demons”, and found “The Da Vinci Code” to be a great read. Having also read “Inferno”, I must say that to me his stories have become rather formulaic …

52. Prosciutto, e.g. HAM
Parma is a city in northern Italy, famous for its ham (prosciutto) and cheese (parmesan). Although the word prosciutto is used in Italian to mean ham however it is prepared, in English we use the word to describe the dry-cured ham that is served raw, in thin slices. Apparently, prosciutto can be made out of the meat from the leg of a pig, or from the thigh of a wild horse.

53. Gilbert and Sullivan work subtitled “The Lass That Loved a Sailor” HMS PINAFORE
“H.M.S. Pinafore” is one of my favorite of the Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas (a production we staged at high school, many moons ago). “Pinafore” was one of the first big hits for Gilbert & Sullivan (in their native Britain, and in America), and they followed it up with “The Pirates of Penzance” and “The Mikado”.

56. Difficult high school sci. course AP BIO
The Advanced Placement (AP) program, as many of us parents know, offers college level courses to kids that are still in high school. After being tested at the end of the courses, successful students receive credits that count towards a college degree. My bank manager is all for anything that gets college students through in 4 years!

67. “__ go bragh!” ERIN
“Erin go bragh!” is an anglicization of an Irish phrase “Éirinn go Brách!”, which translates as “Ireland Forever!”

68. Common Sundance entry INDIE
The Sundance film festival is the largest independent film event in the country, and takes place every year around the Sundance Resort near Provo, Utah. The festival has its roots in the Utah/US Film Festival which started in Salt Lake City in 1978. Management of the festival was taken over by Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute in 1985. The festival has became a bit of a media feeding frenzy in recent years, as a lot of A-list celebrities attend. The Festival organizers introduced a “Focus on Film” campaign in 2007 to try to offset some of the madness.

69. Author Radcliffe and a cape ANNS
Ann Radcliffe was an English author famous for her Gothic novels, a genre that she helped to pioneer in the late 18th century.

Cape Ann is 30 miles north of Boston and is on the northernmost edge of Massachusetts Bay. The Cape was first mapped by the explorer John Smith. Early in his adventurous life Smith had been captured and enslaved by the Ottoman Empire. His “owner” in his days of slavery was a woman called Tragabigzanda, and apparently the slave and owner fell in love. What we know today as Cape Ann, Smith originally called Cape Tragabigzanda in her memory.

70. Russian refusal NYET
“Nyet” is Russian for “no”, and “da” is Russian for “yes”.

71. Preppy collars ETONS
An Eton collar is a wide, stiff, buttoned collar that is still part of the formal school uniform at Eton College near Windsor in England.

Down
1. Strapped support BRA
The word “brassière” is of course French in origin, but it isn’t the word the French use for a “bra”. In France what we call a bra is known as a “soutien-gorge”, translating to “held under the neck”. The word “brassière” is indeed used in France but there it describes a baby’s undershirt, a lifebelt or a harness. “Brassière” comes from the Old French word for an “arm protector” in a military uniform (“bras” is the French for “arm”). Later “brassière” came to mean “breastplate” and from there the word was used for a type of woman’s corset. The word jumped into English around 1900.

2. UCLA article LOS
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

5. Bordeaux boredom ENNUI
“Ennui” is the French word for boredom, a word that we now use in English. It’s one of the few French words we’ve imported that we haven’t anglicized and actually pronounce “correctly”.

Bordeaux is perhaps the wine producing capital of the world. Wine has been produced in the area since the eighth century. Bordeaux has an administrative history too. During WWII, the French government relocated from Paris to the port city of Bordeaux when it became clear that Paris was soon to fall to the Germans. After the German’s took France, the capital was famously moved to Vichy.

7. Purported ability ESP
Extrasensory Perception (ESP)

8. 2001 boxing biopic ALI
“Ali” is a 2001 biographical movie about Muhammad Ali, with Will Smith in the title role. Among other things, the film is noted for its realistic fight scenes. The scenes were realistic because Smith was really being hit, as hard as his opponents could manage.

9. Step into, as a pair of slacks DON
One doffs one’s hat, usually as a mark of respect. To doff is to take off, with “doff” being a contraction of “do off”. The opposite of “doff” is “don” meaning “to put on”.

10. West Point team ARMY
West Point is a military reservation in New York State, located north of New York City. West Point was first occupied by the Continental Army way back in 1778, making it the longest, continually-occupied military post in the country. Cadet training has taken place at the garrison since 1794, although Congress funding for a US Military Academy (USMA) didn’t start until 1802.

13. Cabinet department created under Carter ENERGY
The US Department of Energy (DOE) came into being largely as a result of the 1973 oil crisis. The DOE was founded in 1977 by the Carter administration. The DOE is responsible for regulating the production of nuclear power, and it is also responsible for the nation’s nuclear weapons.

21. “Falling Skies” network TNT
“Falling Skies” is a sci-fi television series about life in Boston after an alien invasion.

23. Schleps LUGS
Our word “schlep” means “to carry, drag”. As one might expect, “schlep” comes from Yiddish, with “shlepen” having the same meaning.

24. Replace with an ellipsis OMIT
An ellipsis is a series of dots (usually three) used to indicate an omission in some text. The term comes from the Greek word “élleipsis”, which means “omission”.

27. Oscar winner Blanchett CATE
Cate Blanchett is a great Australian actress, and winner of an Academy Award for playing Katherine Hepburn in “The Aviator”. Winning for that role made Blanchett the first person to win an Academy Award for playing an actor (Hepburn) who had also won an Oscar. Now that, that is trivial information …

31. Kathryn of “Law & Order: C.I.” ERBE
The actress Kathryn Erbe is best known for playing Det. Alexandra Eames on the TV show “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”. Paradoxically perhaps, her other noted role is as Shirley Bellinger in the HBO series “Oz”, a death row inmate.

34. Sicilian six SEI
Twice three (tre) is six (sei), in Italian.

In the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, the “boot” is the mainland of Italy, and the the ball being kicked by the boot is the island of Sicily.

38. Author Chomsky NOAM
Noam Chomsky is a professor of linguistics at MIT. Chomsky is known as one of the fathers of modern linguistics.

40. Mythical city of gold EL DORADO
The original El Dorado was a Muisca chief who was covered with gold dust in a tribal ritual and then dove into Lake Guatavita in present-day Colombia. Later, “El Dorado” was adopted as the name for a mythical “Lost City of Gold” that became a quest from many Spanish Conquistadors who explored the Americas.

42. DNA component GENE
A gene is a section of a chromosome that is responsible for a particular characteristic in an organism. For example, one gene may determine eye color and another balding pattern. We have two copies of each gene, one from each of our parents, with each copy known as an allele.

45. Soda born at the base of a California mountain SHASTA
The soft drink company called Shasta Beverages started off bottling mineral water from Shasta Springs in Northern California back in 1889. The water was originally shipped in railroad cars that were lined with glass.

47. Insomniac’s prescription AMBIEN
Ambien is a brand name for the prescription drug Zolpidem. I have a friend who used to swear by it for helping cope with jet lag. I once had to deal with jet lag almost monthly and swear by the diet supplement melatonin, which you can buy over the counter here in the US. But, I am no doctor so don’t listen to anything I say …

49. Like one “k” in “knuckle” SILENT
The letter K in the word “knuckle” is silent.

50. Byrne’s “Strange Overtones” collaborator ENO
Brian Eno started out his musical career with Roxy Music. However, Eno’s most oft-played composition (by far!) is Microsoft’s “start-up jingle”, the 6-second sound you hear when the Windows operating system is booting up. Eno might have annoyed the Microsoft folks when he stated on a BBC radio show:

I wrote it on a Mac. I’ve never used a PC in my life; I don’t like them.

The musician David Byrne was a founding member of the New Wave band called Talking Heads. Byrne resides in the US although was born in the UK.

53. Ad __ committee HOC
The Latin phrase “ad hoc” means “for this purpose”.

54. Bill’s “Groundhog Day” co-star ANDIE
Andie MacDowell is an American actress who seems to turn up in quite a few British productions set in that part of the world. Most famously she was the love interest in the fabulous film “Four Weddings and a Funeral” starring opposite Hugh Grant. I also enjoyed another of her movies, “Groundhog Day”, which is a fun tale set back here in the US.

“Groundhog Day” is a 1993 comedy film that has already become a classic. The real star of the movie is Bill Murray, with the lovely Andie MacDowell putting in a great supporting performance. “Groundhog Day” is of course set in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania although it was actually filmed in the town of Woodstock, Illinois.

60. Craving YEN
The word “yen”, meaning “urge”, has been around in English since the very early 1900s. It comes from the earlier word “yin” imported from Chinese, which was used in English to describe an intense craving for opium!

64. “A Dog of the Regiment” dog __ Tin Tin RIN
The original Rin Tin Tin was an actual dog, a puppy discovered by a GI in a bombed-out kennel in France during WWI. The soldier named the pup Rin Tin Tin, the same name as a puppet given to American soldiers for luck. On returning to the US, “Rinty” was trained by his owner and was spotted doing tricks by a film producer. Rinty featured in some films, eventually getting his first starring role in 1923 in the silent movie “Where the North Begins”. Legend has it that this first Rin Tin Tin died in the arms of actress Jean Harlow. Not a bad way to go …

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Nine-time Grammy winner Mary J. __ BLIGE
6. Honeyed quaff MEAD
10. High point ACME
14. Pine product ROSIN
15. Nobel Peace Prize city OSLO
16. Mount color ROAN
17. Kind of elephant ASIAN
18. Poof UP IN SMOKE
20. Wide-headed fasteners T-NUTS
22. Peppy and then some HYPER
23. “Danger, Will Robinson!” sci-fi series LOST IN SPACE
28. Big jerk? TUG
29. Actress Thurman UMA
30. __ cotta TERRA
31. Frequent award for Tiger Woods ESPY
32. Christmas buys GIFTS
35. River mammal OTTER
37. “Lincoln” director STEVEN SPIELBERG
43. Godly PIOUS
44. Group scuffle MELEE
45. Layered haircut SHAG
48. Get a giggle from AMUSE
51. “Inferno” author Brown DAN
52. Prosciutto, e.g. HAM
53. Gilbert and Sullivan work subtitled “The Lass That Loved a Sailor” HMS PINAFORE
56. Difficult high school sci. course AP BIO
58. Solitary soul LONER
59. Washing machine phase graphically shown in this puzzle’s circles SPIN CYCLE
63. Private account DIARY
66. One still maturing TEEN
67. “__ go bragh!” ERIN
68. Common Sundance entry INDIE
69. Author Radcliffe and a cape ANNS
70. Russian refusal NYET
71. Preppy collars ETONS

Down
1. Strapped support BRA
2. UCLA article LOS
3. “Can I come out now?” IS IT SAFE?
4. Really big GIANT
5. Bordeaux boredom ENNUI
6. Chocolate treat MOUSSE
7. Purported ability ESP
8. 2001 boxing biopic ALI
9. Step into, as a pair of slacks DON
10. West Point team ARMY
11. Appropriates CO-OPTS
12. Facial cosmetics MAKEUP
13. Cabinet department created under Carter ENERGY
19. Lady’s pronoun SHE
21. “Falling Skies” network TNT
23. Schleps LUGS
24. Replace with an ellipsis OMIT
25. Supports PROPS UP
26. Drawing intro ART I
27. Oscar winner Blanchett CATE
31. Kathryn of “Law & Order: C.I.” ERBE
33. Freq. sitcom rating TV-PG
34. Sicilian six SEI
36. Stately shader ELM
38. Author Chomsky NOAM
39. Column enders SUMS
40. Mythical city of gold EL DORADO
41. Duff REAR
42. DNA component GENE
45. Soda born at the base of a California mountain SHASTA
46. Go down, so to speak HAPPEN
47. Insomniac’s prescription AMBIEN
49. Like one “k” in “knuckle” SILENT
50. Byrne’s “Strange Overtones” collaborator ENO
53. Ad __ committee HOC
54. Bill’s “Groundhog Day” co-star ANDIE
55. False move FEINT
57. Places to stay INNS
60. Craving YEN
61. Howl or bark CRY
62. Tell a tale LIE
64. “A Dog of the Regiment” dog __ Tin Tin RIN
65. “Without a doubt!” YES!

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