LA Times Crossword Answers 5 Feb 14, Wednesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
10. Alma mater of many gens. 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.

14. Manitoba natives CREES
The Cree are one of the largest groups of Native Americans on the continent. In the US most of the Cree nation live in Montana on a reservation shared with the Ojibwe people. In Canada most of the Cree live in Manitoba.

18. Polite refusal, in Nuremberg NEIN, DANKE (giving “9”)
“Nein, danke” is German for “no, thank you”.

Nürnberg (anglicized as Nuremberg) is a Bavarian city located north of Munich. Historically it is remembered for the huge Nazi Nuremberg rallies, and the Nuremberg trials that took place at the end of WWII. Nürnberg is sometimes confused with the city of Nürburg in the west of Germany, famous for the Nürburgring race track.

20. Resistance units OHMS
The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

21. Bottom row key CTRL
The control key (Ctrl)

22. “A Death in the Family” author AGEE
James Agee was a noted American film critic and screenwriter. Agee wrote an autobiographical novel “A Death in the Family” that won him his Pulitzer in 1958, albeit posthumously. He was also one of the screenwriters for the 1951 classic movie “The African Queen”.

23. North __ SEA
The North Sea is an offshoot of the Atlantic Ocean that is located between Britain and Scandinavia.

24. “Fall on your knees” carol O HOLY NIGHT (giving “0”)
The Christmas carol known in English as “O Holy Night” is also known as “Cantique de Noël” in the original French. The melody was written by French composer Adolphe Adam, and the French lyrics are a poem called “Minuit, chrétiens” written by Placide Cappeau. “O Holy Night” was the second piece of music ever to be broadcast on radio. The Canadian-American inventor Reginald Fessenden made what is thought to be the first AM radio broadcast on Christmas Eve 1906. He included some music, starting with a piece by Handel, followed by “O Holy Night” played on the violin.

27. Mammoth traps TAR PITS
A tar pit is an unusual geological feature, leakage of bitumen from below ground to the earth’s surface creating a pool of natural asphalt. One of the most famous of these occurrences is the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

The La Brea Tar Pits are located right in the heart of the city of Los Angeles. At the site there is a constant flow of tar that seeps up to the surface from underground, a phenomenon that has been around for tens of thousands of years. What is significant is that much of the seeping tar is covered by water. Over many, many centuries animals came to the water to drink and became trapped in the tar as they entered the water to quench their thirsts. The tar then preserved the bones of the dead animals. Today a museum is located right by the Tar Pits, recovering bones and displaying specimens of the animals found there. It’s well worth a visit if you are in town …

30. “Hometown proud” supermarket chain IGA
IGA stands for Independent Grocers Alliance, a chain of supermarkets that extends right around the world. IGA’s headquarters is in Chicago.

32. Fighting stats TKOS
In boxing, a knockout (KO) is when one of the fighters can’t get up from the canvas within a specified time, usually 10 seconds. This can be due to fatigue, injury, or the participant may be truly “knocked out”. A referee, fighter or doctor may also decide to stop a fight without a physical knockout, especially if there is concern about a fighter’s safety. In this case the bout is said to end with a technical knockout (TKO).

33. She dedicated Imagine Peace Tower to Lennon ONO
The Imagine Peace Tower is a memorial to John Lennon located near Reykjavik, Iceland. The memorial is a white stone monument from which 15 searchlights project a column of light vertically into the night sky. The “tower” was built by Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono. She chose Iceland for the memorial as there is come be powered by a local geothermal power generator.

34. Roy Rogers’ birth name SLYE
Cowboy actor and singer Roy Rogers’ real name was Leonard Franklin Slye, and his nickname was “King of the Cowboys”. Roy Rogers married Dale Evans in 1947. Evans’ nickname was “Queen of the West”.

43. Ball honorees DEBS
Deb is short for “debutante”, which translates from French as “female beginner”.

46. Tulsa sch. named for a televangelist ORU
Oral Roberts University (ORU) is a private school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. ORU was founded relatively recently, in 1963 by the late televangelist Oral Roberts.

55. Symbol for Macy’s STAR
The original Macy’s store was opened by Rowland Hussey Macy in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1851. This store, and several others that Macy opened, all failed. Macy picked himself up though, and started over again in New York City. Those early New York stores all focused on the sale of dry goods, but added departments quickly as the clientele grew. The Macy’s “star” logo has been around since the company was first established. Macy chose the star because it mimicked the star tattoo that he got as a teenager when he was working on a whaling ship out of Nantucket.

60. Big Apple restaurateur SARDI
Sardi’s is a renowned restaurant in the Theater District of Manhattan. Sardi’s is famous for attracting celebrities who pose for caricatures that are then displayed on the restaurant’s walls. After the death of actress and director Antoinette Perry in 1946, her friend and partner Brock Pemberton was having lunch at Sardi’s and came up with idea of a theater award that could be presented in Perry’s honor. The award was to be called the Tony Award.

Down
3. Where Lego headquarters is DENMARK
Lego is manufactured by Lego Group, a privately held company headquartered in Billund, Denmark. The company was founded by a carpenter called Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1934 and the now-famous plastic interlocking blocks were introduced in 1949. The blocks were originally sold under the name “Automatic Binding Bricks” but I think “Lego” is easier to remember! The name “Lego” comes from the Danish term “leg godt” meaning “play well”.

4. Luau neckwear LEIS
“Lei” is the Hawaiian word for “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a “lei” is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

Nowadays the word “luau” denotes almost any kind of party on the Hawaiian Islands, but to the purist a luau is a feast that always includes a serving of “poi”, the bulbous underground stems of taro baked with coconut milk.

5. Top row key ESC
The escape key (Esc)

7. New Mexico county OTERO
Otero County, New Mexico is home to a large part of the White Sands National Monument.

10. Eel, at sushi bars UNAGI
Unagi is the Japanese word for freshwater eel, and unadon is the Japanese word for “eel bowl”. Unadon is actually a contraction of “unagi no kabayaki” (grilled eel) and “donburi” (rice bowl dish).

11. Mali neighbor SENEGAL
The Republic of Senegal is a country on the far western coast of Africa. For many years Senegal was a French colony, gaining independence in 1960. The capital of Senegal is Dakar, a city located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Republic of Mali is a landlocked country in western Africa, south of Algeria. Mali’s most famous city is Timbuktu.

12. Seize the opportunity, sunshinewise MAKE HAY
Make hay while the sun shines … seize the opportunity.

19. Comical Carvey DANA
Dana Carvey, along with the likes of Phil Hartman and Kevin Nealon, was part of the new breed of “Saturday Night Live” comedians credited with resurrecting the show in the late eighties. One of Carvey’s most popular characters was the Church Lady, and he became so associated with her that among fellow cast members Carvey was often referred to simply as “the Lady”. Carvey had open-heart surgery in 1997 to clear a blocked artery, but the surgical team operated on the wrong blood vessel. To recover, he had to have five more procedures. He ended up suing for medical malpractice and donated his $7.5 million compensation payment to charity.

25. “Son of Frankenstein” role YGOR
1939’s “Son of Frankenstein” is the third in the series of classic horror films featuring Boris Karloff as the Monster. The prior titles are “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein”. Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant Ygor was played by Bela Lugosi.

28. Supplies on TV’s “Chopped” POTS
“Chopped” is a cooking contest show that airs on the Food Network.

29. Prefix with bar ISO-
An isobar is a line on a weather map connecting points of equal barometric pressure.

33. Multivolume ref. OED
The “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED) contains over 300,000 “main” entries and 59 million words in total. It is said it would take a single person 120 years to type it out in full. The longest entry for one word in the second edition of the OED is the verb “set”. When the third edition was published in 2007, the longest entry for a single word became the verb “put”. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most-quoted author in the OED is William Shakespeare, with his most quoted work being “Hamlet”. The most-quoted female author is George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans).

37. Carnation genus DIANTHUS
The Dianthus genus of flowering plants in the species known commonly as carnation, pink and sweet william.

38. Byrnes who played Kookie EDD
I used to watch “77 Sunset Strip” as a lad growing up in Ireland. It is an American show that ran from 1958 to 1964. Two of the central characters are former government secret agents, now working as private detectives. Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. plays Stu Bailey, and Roger Smith plays Jeff Spencer. And who can forget Kookie, played by Edd Byrnes? Years later, Byrnes played smooth-talking TV dance show host Vince Fontaine in the 1978 movie “Grease”.

41. Opie’s guardian AUNT BEE
Aunt Bee was a character in “The Andy Griffith Show”. The character’s full name was Beatrice Taylor but everyone in Mayberry called her “Aunt Bee”. In the storyline she was the aunt of the protagonist, Sheriff Andy Taylor, and great-aunt to Andy’s son Opie. Aunt Bee was played by actress Frances Bavier.

44. With 63-Across, city whose zip code is suggested by the starts of 18-, 24-, 35-, 51- and 58-Across BEVERLY
63. See 44-Down HILLS
The city of Beverly Hills, California was named after Beverly Farms in Beverly, Massachusetts and also after the hills in that part of California.

47. Newbie TYRO
A tyro (also “tiro”) is a beginner or a novice. “Tyro” comes into English from Latin, in which “tiro” means “a recruit”.

48. Taloned predator OSPREY
The Osprey is also known as the sea hawk or fish eagle.

50. Inhumane person SADIST
A sadist is someone who derives pleasure from inflicting pain, with that pleasure often being sexual in nature. The term “sadist” comes from the Marquis de Sade who was known to exhibit such tendencies.

The Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat with a reputation for a libertine lifestyle. De Sade was also a writer, well known for his works of erotica. He fell foul of the law for some of his more extreme practices and for blaspheming the Catholic church. On an off, de Sade spent 32 years of his life in prison and in insane asylums.

52. Dance studio fixture BARRE
A “barre” is a handrail used by ballet dancers for warm-up exercises and to provide support when practicing certain moves.

57. Bordeaux “but” MAIS
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.

59. Cable co. acquired by AT&T in 1999 TCI
Tele-Communications, Inc (TCI) was the largest provider of cable television service in the US for a while. The company was founded in 1968 and was headquartered in Denver. TCI was bought by AT&T in 1999.

60. __ Na Na SHA
Do you remember the band “Johnny Casino & The Gamblers” in the movie “Grease”? That was actually the real-world group Sha Na Na. Johnny Casino & the Gamblers sang “Those Magic Changes” at the high school dance, in between “Rock’N Roll Is Here to Stay” and “Hound Dog”. Sha Na Na got together in the sixties and are still performing today.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Really mix up ADDLE
6. Fashion MODE
10. Alma mater of many gens. USMA
14. Manitoba natives CREES
15. Other, to Diego OTRO
16. “Cool!” NEAT
17. Glass-half-empty sort CYNIC
18. Polite refusal, in Nuremberg NEIN, DANKE (giving “9”)
20. Resistance units OHMS
21. Bottom row key CTRL
22. “A Death in the Family” author AGEE
23. North __ SEA
24. “Fall on your knees” carol O HOLY NIGHT (giving “0”)
27. Mammoth traps TAR PITS
30. “Hometown proud” supermarket chain IGA
31. “How relaxing!” AAH!
32. Fighting stats TKOS
33. She dedicated Imagine Peace Tower to Lennon ONO
34. Roy Rogers’ birth name SLYE
35. Somewhat TO A DEGREE (giving “2”)
39. Mudbath offerers SPAS
42. Clear (of) RID
43. Ball honorees DEBS
46. Tulsa sch. named for a televangelist ORU
47. __ leaves TEA
48. Hardly the latest buzz OLD NEWS
51. Only just broke the tape WON BY A NOSE (giving “1”)
54. Through VIA
55. Symbol for Macy’s STAR
56. Prime time rating TVPG
57. Give a darn? MEND
58. “You gotta be kidding!” OH BROTHER! (giving “0”)
60. Big Apple restaurateur SARDI
61. Go-getter DOER
62. Remedy CURE
63. See 44-Down HILLS
64. Duel tool EPEE
65. “My word!” I SAY!
66. Until now AS YET

Down
1. Confront boldly ACCOST
2. Arizona climate DRY HEAT
3. Where Lego headquarters is DENMARK
4. Luau neckwear LEIS
5. Top row key ESC
6. Quite a while MONTHS
7. New Mexico county OTERO
8. Boring activity DRILLING
9. Quite a while EON
10. Eel, at sushi bars UNAGI
11. Mali neighbor SENEGAL
12. Seize the opportunity, sunshinewise MAKE HAY
13. Had a bite ATE
19. Comical Carvey DANA
21. Private bed COT
25. “Son of Frankenstein” role YGOR
26. Everyday article THE
28. Supplies on TV’s “Chopped” POTS
29. Prefix with bar ISO-
33. Multivolume ref. OED
34. Witnessed SEEN
36. Locale AREA
37. Carnation genus DIANTHUS
38. Byrnes who played Kookie EDD
39. Piglet’s mother SOW
40. Place to have a racket restrung PRO SHOP
41. Opie’s guardian AUNT BEE
44. With 63-Across, city whose zip code is suggested by the starts of 18-, 24-, 35-, 51- and 58-Across BEVERLY
45. Shortchange SWINDLE
47. Newbie TYRO
48. Taloned predator OSPREY
49. Cut of lamb LEG
50. Inhumane person SADIST
52. Dance studio fixture BARRE
53. __ barrel: in hot water OVER A
57. Bordeaux “but” MAIS
58. Dedicated lines ODE
59. Cable co. acquired by AT&T in 1999 TCI
60. __ Na Na SHA

Return to top of page