LA Times Crossword Answers 25 Feb 14, Tuesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Lunchbox staple, initially PBJ
Peanut butter and jelly (PB&J or PBJ)

8. Hatcher of “Lois & Clark” TERI
Teri Hatcher’s most famous role these days is the Susan Mayer character in “Desperate Housewives”. I’ve never seen more than a few minutes of “Housewives” but I do know Teri Hatcher as a Bond girl, as she appeared in “Tomorrow Never Dies”.

“Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman” is a television show that aired originally from 1993 to 1997. The storyline focuses as much on the relationship between Clark Kent and Lois Lane as it does on Kent’s life as Superman. Clark and Lois are played by Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher.

12. Pakistani language URDU
Urdu is one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and is one of 22 scheduled languages in India. Urdu partly developed from Persian and is written from right to left.

14. Pakistan neighbor IRAN
Before 1935 the country we know today as Iran was called Persia by the Western world. The official name of the country since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 is the “Islamic Republic of Iran”.

The official name of the country is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The name “Pakistan” translates from both Persian and Urdu as “Land of the Pure”.

21. “Wake Up Little Susie” singer Don or Phil EVERLY
The Everly Brothers are noted for their steel guitar sound, and their great use of harmony. Their harmony onstage wasn’t reflected off the stage though. In 1973 the brothers decided to pursue separate careers and scheduled a farewell performance attended by many fans, family and stalwarts from the music industry. Don Everly came on stage too drunk to perform, and eventually brother Phil just stormed off into the wings, smashing his guitar as he left. The boys didn’t talk to each other for ten years after that incident. Phil Everly passed away in January 2014.

“Wake Up, Little Susie” is a song most famously associated with the Everly Brothers, as it was a hit for the duo in 1957. “Wake Up, Little Susie” is, or at least used to be, the favorite song of President George W. Bush.

22. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” creator LARRY DAVID
Larry David was one of the creators of the sitcom “Seinfeld”, and was a co-writer of many of the episodes. He also stars in the HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.

24. Next-to-last Greek letter PSI
The Greek letter psi is the one that looks a bit like a trident or a pitchfork.

28. Cape Town’s land: Abbr. RSA
Cape Town is the legislative capital of the Republic of South Africa (RSA), and is one of three capital cities in the country. Bloemfontein is the judicial capital, and Pretoria is the executive capital.

31. 1983 Streisand film YENTL
“Yentl” is a play that opened in New York City in 1975. The move to adapt the play for the big screen was led by Barbara Streisand, and indeed she wrote the first outline of a musical version herself as far back as 1968. The film was eventually made and released in 1983, with Streisand performing the lead role.

33. “From __ to shining …” SEA
“From sea to shining sea” is a line from the patriotic song “America the Beautiful”.

When she was 33 years old, Katharine Lee Bates took a train ride from Massachusetts to Colorado Springs. She was so inspired by many of the beautiful sights she saw on her journey that she wrote a poem she called “Pikes Peak”. Upon publication the poem became quite a hit, and several musical works were adapted to the words of the poem, the most popular being a hymn tune composed by Samuel Ward. Bates’s poem and Ward’s tune were published together for the first time in 1910, and given the title “America the Beautiful”.

35. Common pump choice REGULAR UNLEADED
It’s a little tricky to compare the prices of gasoline at the pump around the world given the different units of measurement and the different currencies. When I bemoan gas prices here in California I sometimes cheer myself up by remembering how expensive the same product is back in Ireland. The average price/gallon here in the US for the third quarter 2013 for regular unleaded was $3.66 (although not here in the Bay Area!). The price for the same amount of regular unleaded for the same period in Ireland was $7.79 …

39. Early garden EDEN
According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in a garden “in” Eden, with Eden being geographically located by reference to four rivers including the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some scholars hypothesize that Eden was located in Mesopotamia, which encompasses much of modern-day Iraq.

40. La-Z-Boy room DEN
La-Z-Boy is a furniture manufacturer based in Monroe, Michigan. Although the company makes furniture for every room in the house, it is famous for it’s recliner chairs found in family rooms all over the country.

42. Country south of Turk. SYR
The modern state that we know as Syria was established after WWI as a French mandate. Syria was granted independence from France in 1946.

Turkey is a country that straddles the border between the continents of Europe and Asia. Even though most of Turkey lies geographically in Asia, in recent decades the country has been strengthening its ties with its European neighbors. Turkey is a member of NATO and is well on the way to becoming a member of the European Union.

46. Boxer’s stat KOS
Knockout (KO)

56. “Star Wars” droid, and a hint to letters shared by 17-, 22-, 35- and 47-Across ARTOO-DETOO
Artoo’s proper name is R2-D2. R2-D2 is the smaller of the two famous droids from the “Star Wars” movies. British actor Kenny Baker, who stands just 3 ft 8 ins tall, has been the man inside the R2-D2 droid for all six of the “Star Wars” movies.

59. Taxi fixture METER
We call cabs “taxis”, a word derived from “taximeter cabs” that were introduced in London in 1907. A taximeter was an automated meter designed to record distance travelled and fare to be charged. The term “taximeter” evolved from “taxameter”, with “taxa” being Latin for “tax, charge”.

60. Clothier Strauss LEVI
Levi Strauss was the founder of the first company in the world to manufacture blue jeans. Levi Strauss & Co. opened in 1853 in San Francisco. Strauss and his business partner were awarded a patent in 1873 for the use of copper rivets to strengthen points of strain on working pants.

64. Mario Brothers console NES
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)

Mario Bros. started out as an arcade game back in 1983, developed by Nintendo. The more famous of the two brothers, Mario, had already appeared in an earlier arcade game “Donkey Kong”. Mario was given a brother called Luigi, and the pair have been around ever since. In the game, Mario and Luigi are Italian American plumbers from New York City.

Down
1. Stout servers PUBS
The term “stout” was first used for a type of beer in the 1600s when was used to describe a “strong, stout” brew, and not necessarily a dark beer as it is today.

3. Holden Caulfield creator JD SALINGER
J. D. Salinger was a very reclusive author, most famous for his novel “Catcher in the Rye”. Salinger fought in WWII after he was drafted into the US Army. He saw action on Utah Beach on D-Day, and in the Battle of the Bulge. He also spent a lot of time interrogating prisoners due to his knowledge of French and German, and he was one of the first Americans to go into a liberated concentration camp. He later spent time in hospital suffering from what was then called combat stress reaction, as he tried to deal with what he saw in the German camps.

“The Catcher in the Rye” is the most famous novel from the pen of J. D. Salinger. The main character and narrator in the book is Holden Caulfield, a teenager who gets expelled from a university prep school. Caulfield also makes appearances in several short stories written by Salinger, as do other members of the Caulfield family.

5. Vintage sitcom stepfamily BRADYS
The famous sitcom “The Brady Bunch” originally aired from 1969 to 1974 on ABC. If you ever see a movie called “Yours, Mine and Ours” starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda (and remade with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo), you might notice a similarity in storyline. It was because of the success of the 1968 movie that ABC decided to go ahead with the development of “The Brady Bunch”.

7. Ambient music pioneer Brian 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.

8. Assisted through a tough time, with “over” TIDED
Something is said “to tide one over” if it (often money) will see one through a rough patch. The idea behind the expression is that a swelling tide can carry you over an obstacle without effort on your part, as perhaps a reserve fund might keep the lenders from your door. The use of “tide” in this sense might come from some famous lines spoken by Brutus in “Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare:

There is a Tide in the affairs of men,
Which taken at the Flood, leads on to Fortune

9. Caltech grad, often: Abbr. ENGR
Caltech is more properly known as the California Institute of Technology, and is a private research-oriented school in Pasadena. One of Caltech’s responsibilities is the management and operation of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. If you watch “The Big Bang Theory” on television like me, you might know that the four lead characters all work at Caltech.

13. West Point letters USMA
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.

15. “Deathtrap” playwright Ira LEVIN
As well as writing novels, Ira Levin was a dramatist and a songwriter. Levin’s first novel was “A Kiss Before Dying”, and his most famous work was “Rosemary’s Baby” which became a Hollywood hit. His best known play is “Deathtrap”, a production that is often seen in local theater (I’ve seen it a couple of times around here). “Deathtrap” was also was a successful movie, starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. My favorite of Levin’s novels though are “The Boys from Brazil” and “The Stepford Wives”.

20. Suave shelfmate PRELL
Prell shampoo was introduced by Procter & Gamble in 1947, and was originally a clear green concentrate sold in a tube (like toothpaste).

Suave is a line of personal care products from Unilever. The original Suave product was a hair tonic that was introduced in 1937.

28. Comedian who ended his show with “… and may God bless” RED SKELTON
Red Skelton was an American comedian who started out in show business as a teenager working with the circus. Skelton had a very successful career on radio before moving to television in the early fifties. His popularity only began to fade in the early seventies, when he had difficulty appealing to younger audiences. Skelton spent less time performing in his latter years, and turned to his other great love … painting.

30. Raggedy dolls ANDYS
Raggedy Andy was introduced as the brother to Raggedy Ann in the 1920 book “Raggedy Andy Stories”.

Raggedy Ann is a rag doll, created by Johnny Gruelle in 1915 for his daughter, Marcella. He decided to name the doll by combining the titles of two poems by James Whitcomb Riley, “The Raggedy Man” and “Little Orphan Annie”. Gruelle introduced Raggedy Ann in a series of books three years later. Sadly, Marcella died at 13 years of age with her father blaming a smallpox vaccination she was given at school. Gruelle became very active in the movement against mass vaccination, for which Raggedy Ann became a symbol.

33. Baltimore daily SUN
Maryland’s largest-circulation newspaper is “The Baltimore Sun”. “The Sun” has been around for a long time, founded in 1837.

37. Scuba spot REEF
The self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) was co-invented by celebrated French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau.

43. Gossip fodder RUMOR
Our word “gossip” comes from the Old English “godsibb” meaning “godparent”. The term was then used for women friends who attended a birth, and then for anyone engaging in idle talk.

45. Cleverly skillful ADROIT
The French for “to the right” is “à droit”, from which we get our word “adroit”. The original meaning of “adroit” was “rightly, properly”, but it has come to mean dexterous and skillful.

49. Imprecise cooking measure DASH
In cooking, a “dash” is a very small measure, one that is often undefined. However, you can in fact buy some measuring spoons that define not only a dash, but also a “pinch” and a “smidgen” as follows:

– a dash is 1/8 teaspoon
– a pinch is 1/16 teaspoon
– a smidgen is 1/32 teaspoon

50. Pool or polo GAME
The more correct name for the game of pool is pocket billiards. The name “pool” arose after pocket billiards became a common feature in “pool halls”, places where gamblers “pooled” their money to bet on horse races.

The game of polo originated in Iran, possibly before the 5th century BC. Polo was used back them primarily as a training exercise for cavalry units.

52. Web address opening HTTP
“http” are the first letters in most Internet link addresses. “http” stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol.

54. Harp kin LYRE
The lyre is a stringed instrument most closely associated with Ancient Greece, and with the gods Hermes and Apollo in particular. According to myth, Hermes slaughtered a cow from a sacred herd belonging to Apollo and offered it to the gods but kept the entrails. Hermes used the entrails to create the first lyre. Apollo liked the sound from the lyre and agreed to accept it as a trade for his herd of cattle.

55. Strong urges YENS
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!

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Lunchbox staple, initially PBJ
4. Handy, say ABLE
8. Hatcher of “Lois & Clark” TERI
12. Pakistani language URDU
14. Pakistan neighbor IRAN
15. Tablecloth fabric LINEN
16. Striped fish BASS
17. Dangerously sharp RAZOR-EDGED
19. Ranch nightmare STAMPEDE
21. “Wake Up Little Susie” singer Don or Phil EVERLY
22. “Curb Your Enthusiasm” creator LARRY DAVID
24. Next-to-last Greek letter PSI
26. Difficult turn on the slopes ESS
27. Fellows MEN
28. Cape Town’s land: Abbr. RSA
31. 1983 Streisand film YENTL
33. “From __ to shining …” SEA
34. Has-__ BEEN
35. Common pump choice REGULAR UNLEADED
39. Early garden EDEN
40. La-Z-Boy room DEN
41. Very unpleasant, weather-wise NASTY
42. Country south of Turk. SYR
43. Costly cracker-topper ROE
44. 35-Across, e.g. GAS
46. Boxer’s stat KOS
47. Gnarly one on the waves SURFER DUDE
50. “Beat it, kid!” GO HOME!
53. “I’m serious!” NO REALLY!
56. “Star Wars” droid, and a hint to letters shared by 17-, 22-, 35- and 47-Across ARTOO-DETOO
58. Eyelid trouble STYE
59. Taxi fixture METER
60. Clothier Strauss LEVI
61. Traffic sound HORN
62. Glimpse ESPY
63. Lose sleep (over) FRET
64. Mario Brothers console NES

Down
1. Stout servers PUBS
2. Unruly kid BRAT
3. Holden Caulfield creator JD SALINGER
4. Cable stations, e.g. AIRERS
5. Vintage sitcom stepfamily BRADYS
6. Vegged out LAZED
7. Ambient music pioneer Brian ENO
8. Assisted through a tough time, with “over” TIDED
9. Caltech grad, often: Abbr. ENGR
10. Hose holder REEL
11. Race nickname INDY
13. West Point letters USMA
15. “Deathtrap” playwright Ira LEVIN
18. Disclose REVEAL
20. Suave shelfmate PRELL
23. “So true!” AMEN!
24. Funereal piles PYRES
25. Like some rye bread SEEDY
28. Comedian who ended his show with “… and may God bless” RED SKELTON
29. Make arrangements for SEE TO
30. Raggedy dolls ANDYS
32. Winery cask TUN
33. Baltimore daily SUN
34. Cry from a flock BAA
36. Loved to pieces ADORED
37. Scuba spot REEF
38. Come after ENSUE
43. Gossip fodder RUMOR
44. Vinyl record feature GROOVE
45. Cleverly skillful ADROIT
47. “Here, piggies!” SOOEY!
48. “It’s open!” ENTER!
49. Imprecise cooking measure DASH
50. Pool or polo GAME
51. Raw rocks ORES
52. Web address opening HTTP
54. Harp kin LYRE
55. Strong urges YENS
57. Pixie ELF

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