LA Times Crossword Answers 26 Feb 14, Wednesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Bryan W. Young & Jeff Chan
THEME: Who the Wolf Hounds … the first word of the themed answers on the left of the grid spell out THE BIG BAD WOLF, and the last words of the themed answers on the right of the grid spell out LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD:

16A. “Blackadder” network THE BBC
26A. Head honcho BIG CHEESE
42A. Unsavory sort BAD EGG
53A. Borzois, e.g. WOLFHOUNDS

20A. Impressionist whom Mel Blanc labeled “The Man of a Thousand Voices” RICH LITTLE
35A. Show shame, perhaps GET RED
48A. Driving with abandon JOYRIDING
63A. Prominent Ore. peak MT HOOD

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 11m 33s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. McCarthy’s dummy friend SNERD
Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen’s most famous character was Charlie McCarthy, but Bergen also worked with Mortimer Snerd.

6. Baltic, e.g. SEA
The Baltic is a sea in northern Europe that is much less saline than the oceans. The lower amount of salt in the Baltic partially explains why almost half of the sea freezes during the winter. In fact, the Baltic has been known to completely freeze over several times over the past few centuries.

9. Cougar PUMA
The mountain lion is found in much of the Americas from the Yukon in Canada right down to the southern Andes in South America. Because the mountain lion is found over such a vast area, it has many different names applied by local peoples, such as cougar and puma. In fact, the mountain lion holds the Guinness record for the animal with the most number of different names, with over 40 in English alone.

13. Canadian dollar coin nickname LOONIE
The great northern loon is the provincial bird of Ontario, and the state bird of Minnesota. The loon once appeared on Canadian $20 bills and also appears on the Canadian one dollar coin, giving the coin the nickname “the Loonie”.

15. Computer operating system UNIX
Unix is a computer operating system that was developed at Bell Labs in 1969.

I always think of an operating system as that piece of software that sits between the hardware on my computer and the programs that I choose to run. Developers of application programs don’t really have to worry about being able to “talk to” the countless different types of hardware found in the wide variety of computers that are manufactured, they just need to talk to the handful of operating systems that are out there, like Windows, MAC and Unix. The operating system takes care of the rest.

16. “Blackadder” network THE BBC
The marvelous British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is mainly funded by the UK government through a television licence fee that is levied annually on all households watching TV transmissions. Currently the fee is 145 UK pounds, about 230 US dollars.

“Blackadder” is a very successful set of four television comedy series that stars Rowan Atkinson (best known as “Mr. Bean” here in North America). Each of the series is set in a different era:

– The Middle Ages
– The Elizabethan era
– The Regency era
– World War One

17. Hosp. heart exam ECG
An EKG measures electrical activity in the heart. Back in my homeland of Ireland, an EKG is known as an ECG (for electrocardiogram). We use the German name in the US, Elektrokardiogramm, giving us EKG. Apparently the abbreviation EKG is preferred as ECG might be confused (if poorly handwritten, I guess) with EEG, the abbreviation for an electroencephalogram.

20. Impressionist whom Mel Blanc labeled “The Man of a Thousand Voices” RICH LITTLE
Both Mel Blanc and Rich Little earned the moniker “The Man of a Thousand Voices”.

Rich Little is a Canadian-born impersonator, known as “The Man of a Thousand Voices”. He lives in Las Vegas, and there was sworn in as a US citizen just a few years ago, in 2008.

Mel Blanc is known as “The Man of a Thousand Voices”. We’ve all heard Mel Blanc at one time or another, I am sure. His was the voice behind such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Woody Woodpecker, Elmer Fudd and Barney Rubble. And the words on Blanc’s tombstone are … “That’s All Folks”.

23. Baltic feeder ODER
The Oder river rises in the Czech Republic, and forms just over a hundred miles of the border between Germany and Poland.

25. “… a __ / By any other name …” ROSE
In William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”, the lovers discuss the sad fact that they have been born into two feuding families in the famous balcony scene. Juliet says:

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

Romeo’s reply includes the lines:

What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

26. Head honcho BIG CHEESE
The phrase “the big cheese” doesn’t have its roots in the word “cheese” at all. The original phrase was “the real cheese” meaning “the real thing”, used way back in late 1800s (long before Coke picked it up). “Chiz” is a Persian and Hindi word meaning “thing”, and it’s not hard to see how the expression “the real chiz” would morph into “the real cheese”. Then in early-20th century America, instead of a “real cheese”, the most influential person in a group was labeled as “the big cheese”. And I think that is about the only use of the word “cheese” that is in anyway complimentary!

“Honcho” is a slang term for a leader or manager. The term comes to us from Japanese, in which language a “hancho” is a squad (han) leader (cho).

30. Tolkien’s talking trees ENTS
Ents are those tree-like creatures that live in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth in his series of books “The Lord of the Rings”. “Ent” is an Old English word for “giant”.

34. “The Mod Squad” cop LINC
The 1999 movie “The Mod Squad” was an adaptation of the seventies television show of the same name. The part of Lincoln “Linc” Hayes was played by Omar Epps, Claire Danes played Julie Barnes and Giovanni Ribisi played Peter Cochran.

39. ’60s jacket style NEHRU
A Nehru jacket is very like a regular suit jacket, except that the collar buttons at the neck. It was originally created in the 1940s in India, and then marketed as the Nehru jacket in the west in the sixties. The name Nehru was lifted from Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India from 1947 to 1964.

41. UFO-tracking org. SETI
SETI is the name given to a number of projects that are searching for extraterrestrial life. The acronym stands for “search for extraterrestrial intelligence”. One of the main SETI activities is the monitoring of electromagnetic radiation (such as radio waves) reaching the Earth in the hope of finding a transmission from a civilization in another world.

46. From, in some European names VON
“Von” is German for “from”.

47. Star witnesses? MAGI
“Magi” is the plural of the Latin word “magus”, a term applied to someone who was able to read the stars. Hence, magi is commonly used with reference to the “wise men from the East” who followed the star and visited Jesus soon after he was born.

50. Hispaniola, por ejemplo ISLA
In Spanish, Hispaniola for example (por ejemplo) is an island (isla).

The Caribbean island of Hispaniola was a target for European settlers, and ended up being a disputed territory between France and Spain. The two countries divided the island with the French taking control of the western third, which they named Saint-Domingue. Saint-Domingue was later to become the independent, French-speaking Republic of Haiti.

52. Poet __ St. Vincent Millay EDNA
Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright, 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.

53. Borzois, e.g. WOLFHOUNDS
The borzoi breed of dog looks like a hairy version of a greyhound. The borzoi is also known as the Russian wolfhound.

57. Gratify SATE
“Sate” is a variant of the earlier word “satiate”. Both can mean either to satisfy an appetite fully, or to eat to excess.

62. Low numero UNO
In Spanish, one (uno) is a low number (numero).

63. Prominent Ore. peak MT HOOD
Mount Hood is a volcanic peak in northern Oregon. Mount Hood is the highest peak in the state, and is located about 50 miles southeast of Portland. There are six ski areas on the mountain, including a resort called Timberline that has North America’s only lift operating year-round for skiing.

66. Porter’s “__ De-Lovely” IT’S
“It’s De-Lovely” is a song from the 1936 Cole Porter musical “Red Hot and Blue”, although the song was “recycled” for the later musical “Anything Goes”. It’s a great song, “de-lightful”, “de-licious”, “de-lovely” in fact …

70. Super Bowl XLVII player NINER
Super Bowl XLVII was played at the end of the 2012 season between the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco Forty-Niners, with the Ravens emerging victorious. The game was nicknamed the Harbaugh Bowl, as for the first time two brothers played against each other. Jim and John Harbaugh turned out as head coaches for the 49ers and Ravens respectively.

Down
1. Area below Greenwich Village SOHO
The Manhattan neighborhood known today as SoHo was very fashionable in the early 1900s, but as the well-heeled started to move uptown the area became very run down and poorly maintained. Noted for the number of fires that erupted in derelict buildings, SoHo earned the nickname “Hell’s Hundred Acres”. The area was then zoned for manufacturing and became home to many sweatshops. In the mid-1900s artists started to move into open loft spaces and renovating old buildings as the lofts were ideal locations in which an artist could both live and work. In 1968, artists and others organized themselves so that they could legalize their residential use of an area zoned for manufacturing. The group they formed took its name from the name given to the area by the city’s Planning Commission i.e “South of Houston”. This was shortened from So-uth of Ho-uston to SoHo as in the SoHo Artists Association, and the name stuck.

2. Sleigh ride song NOEL
“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, ultimately coming from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). “Noel” has come to be used as an alternative name for a Christmas carol.

3. As a whole EN BLOC
To do something “en bloc” is to do it all together. “En bloc” is French for “in a block, lump”.

7. Trick-taking card game EUCHRE
Euchre is a card game that probably came to the US from Germany, introduced by German farmers who settled in Wisconsin. Euchre is a trick-taking game usually played by four people in two partnerships. Unlike bridge, Euchre is played with a stripped down deck of 24 or 32 cards.

8. Prefix meaning “English” ANGLO-
The prefix “Anglo-” can be used to mean “English”. The Angles were tribe from Angeln in Northern Germany, and were the invading people from which we get the country name “England”.

9. Portable shelters PUP-TENTS
A pup-tent is a small ridge tent, meant for use by 2-3 people. The term “pup-tent” has been around since the mid-1800s. Sometimes a pup-tent was called a dog-tent for some reason.

13. Letters on some Brit. letterheads LTD
In Britain and Ireland the most common type of business (my perception anyway) is one that has private shareholders whose liability is limited to the value of their investment. Such a company is known as a private limited company, and has the letters “Ltd” after the name. If the shares are publicly traded, then the company is a public limited company, and has the letters “plc” after the name.

21. Dancer Castle IRENE
Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-wife team of ballroom dancers who regularly performed on Broadway at the start of the 20th century. The Castles have been credited with creating or at least popularizing the dance called a “foxtrot”.

22. Oracle’s opening I SEE
In Ancient Greece and Rome, an oracle was someone believed inspired by the gods to give wise counsel. The word “oracle” derives from the Latin “orare” meaning “to speak”, which is the same root for our word “orator”. One of the most important oracles of Ancient Greece was the priestess to Apollo at Delphi.

24. UPS competitor DHL
Back in the sixties, Larry Hillblom was making pocket money as a Berkeley law student by doing courier runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. After law school, Hillblom decided to parlay his experience into his own business and set up a courier service flying bills of lading ahead of freight from San Francisco to Honolulu. He brought in two buddies, Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn, as partners and the three were soon hopping on and off commercial flights and gradually making more and more money. And DHL was born … D (for Dalsey) H (for Hillblom) L (for Lynn).

United Parcel Service (UPS) is based in Sandy Springs, Georgia and has its own airline that operates out of Louisville, Kentucky.

26. Lettuce variety BIBB
Bibb is a variety of lettuce in the cultivar known as butterhead. All butterhead varieties have loose-leafed heads and a buttery texture.

27. Imam’s faith ISLAM
Over 50% of the world’s population consider themselves to be adherents of the big three Abrahamic religions: Christianity (2-2.2 billion), Islam (1.6-1.7 billion) and Judaism (14-18 million).

An imam is a Muslim leader, often the person in charge of a mosque or perhaps a Muslim community.

28. Fondue choice GOUDA
Gouda is a cheese that originated in the Dutch city of the same name, although today Gouda is produced all over the world and very little of it comes from the Netherlands. Gouda is often smoke-cured, given it a yellowish-brown outer skin and that characteristic smoky taste.

“Fondu(e)” is the French word for “melted”.

29. Knucklehead SCHMO
“Schmo” is American slang for a dull or boring person, from the Yiddish word “shmok”.

31. “Three Coins …” fountain TREVI
The Trevi Fountain is a huge fountain in Rome, the largest constructed in the Baroque style. The tradition is that if one throws a coin in the fountain then one is guaranteed a return visit to the city. Tourists throw in an amazing 3,000 euros (over $4,000) every day. The money is collected and is used to stock a supermarket for the needy of the city.

“Three Coins in the Fountain” is a 1954 film about three young American women in Rome looking for romance. In the story, each of the girls throws a coin into the city’s famous Trevi fountain making a wish. The title song is probably the most famous composition by songwriter Sammy Cahn.

40. Like daisies RAYED
The flowers of daisies typically have what are called “ray florets”, florets that are flat and strap-shaped. This compares to the “disc florets” of some other plants, in which the petals are fused into the shape of a tube.

43. Lillian of the silver screen GISH
Lillian Gish is most famous for her performances on the silent screen, although she acted in films in a career that lasted from 1912 to 1987, over 75 years. Her most famous role was that of Elsie in D. W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” released in 1915.

45. Musical key abbr. MIN
Musical scales and key signatures can be major (maj.) or minor (min.).

48. Smart-looking JAUNTY
Our words “juanty” and “genteel” are related in that they both derive from the French “gentil” meaning “nice, pleasing”. In modern usage, someone described as jaunty has a buoyant air. Someone described as genteel is refined in manner.

51. Character in “Donald’s Nephews” (1938 cartoon) LOUIE
Donald Duck’s nephews are identical triplets called Huey, Dewey and Louie, and they first appeared on the screen in 1938. Once in awhile due to errors in production, a fourth duck can be seen in the background. This little “mistake” is affectionately called “Phooey Duck” by folks in the industry.

53. 5’7″ Spud who won the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk contest WEBB
Spud Webb is a retired NBA point guard. In 1986, Webb won the NBA’s annual Slam Dunk Contest, despite being one of the shortest players in the league (at only 5’ 7”).

54. “Rubáiyát” poet OMAR
Omar Khayyám was a Persian with many talents. He was a poet as well as an important mathematician, astronomer and physician. A selection of his poems were translated by one Edward Fitzgerald in a collection called “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám”.

56. Bouquet NOSE
We sometimes use the word “bouquet” to mean fragrance or aroma. The term comes from the French word for a “bunch”, as in a fragrant bunch of flowers.

60. Money mgrs.? EDS
Editors (eds.) are managers (mgrs.) at “Money” magazine.

64. Texter’s “I didn’t need to know that!” TMI
Too much information! (TMI)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. McCarthy’s dummy friend SNERD
6. Baltic, e.g. SEA
9. Cougar PUMA
13. Canadian dollar coin nickname LOONIE
14. “I threw away my golf shoes when I got a hole in one,” e.g. PUN
15. Computer operating system UNIX
16. “Blackadder” network THE BBC
17. Hosp. heart exam ECG
18. Medicinal dose PILL
19. Cutie pie DOLL
20. Impressionist whom Mel Blanc labeled “The Man of a Thousand Voices” RICH LITTLE
23. Baltic feeder ODER
25. “… a __ / By any other name …” ROSE
26. Head honcho BIG CHEESE
30. Tolkien’s talking trees ENTS
33. Equal: Pref. ISO-
34. “The Mod Squad” cop LINC
35. Show shame, perhaps GET RED
37. Smudge BLUR
39. ’60s jacket style NEHRU
41. UFO-tracking org. SETI
42. Unsavory sort BAD EGG
44. Respectful address MA’AM
46. From, in some European names VON
47. Star witnesses? MAGI
48. Driving with abandon JOYRIDING
50. Hispaniola, por ejemplo ISLA
52. Poet __ St. Vincent Millay EDNA
53. Borzois, e.g. WOLFHOUNDS
57. Gratify SATE
61. Put out EMIT
62. Low numero UNO
63. Prominent Ore. peak MT HOOD
65. Wither in the sun BAKE
66. Porter’s “__ De-Lovely” IT’S
67. B beater A-MINUS
68. Raised BRED
69. Look at EYE
70. Super Bowl XLVII player NINER

Down
1. Area below Greenwich Village SOHO
2. Sleigh ride song NOEL
3. As a whole EN BLOC
4. Kid RIB
5. Making pronouncements DECREEING
6. A writer may work on it SPEC
7. Trick-taking card game EUCHRE
8. Prefix meaning “English” ANGLO-
9. Portable shelters PUP-TENTS
10. Curriculum part UNIT
11. Grain grinder MILL
12. Rod in a hot rod AXLE
13. Letters on some Brit. letterheads LTD
21. Dancer Castle IRENE
22. Oracle’s opening I SEE
24. UPS competitor DHL
26. Lettuce variety BIBB
27. Imam’s faith ISLAM
28. Fondue choice GOUDA
29. Knucklehead SCHMO
31. “Three Coins …” fountain TREVI
32. Resolute about SET ON
35. Reserve soldier GUARDSMAN
36. Minor dent DING
38. Put a bad present to good use REGIFTED
40. Like daisies RAYED
43. Lillian of the silver screen GISH
45. Musical key abbr. MIN
48. Smart-looking JAUNTY
49. Enter quickly DASH IN
51. Character in “Donald’s Nephews” (1938 cartoon) LOUIE
53. 5’7″ Spud who won the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk contest WEBB
54. “Rubáiyát” poet OMAR
55. Enjoy LIKE
56. Bouquet NOSE
58. Top-of-the-line A-ONE
59. Visit with a guide TOUR
60. Money mgrs.? EDS
64. Texter’s “I didn’t need to know that!” TMI

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