LA Times Crossword Answers 29 Mar 14, Saturday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Julian Lim
THEME: None
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 14m 51s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 2 … CREMA (creme), ANSELM (Enselm)

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Lunch To-Go maker STARKIST
StarKist is a brand of tuna that uses Charlie the Tuna as its cartoon mascot.

9. Espresso feature CREMA
Crema is the name given to that brown foam that sits on the top of a freshly prepared cup of espresso. There’s no milk in it at all!

Espresso is made by forcing extremely hot water, under pressure, through finely ground coffee beans. The result is a thick and concentrated coffee drink, which contains quite a lot of solids and a lot of foam. An espresso machine was first patented in 1884 in Italy, although it was a machine to make the beverage in bulk. The first patent for a machine that made individual measures was applied for in 1901, also in Italy.

15. Boring tool TREPAN
A trepan is a boring tool used to sink mineshafts.

18. Tony Soprano, for one ANTIHERO
An “antihero”, perhaps in a movie or novel, is the “hero” of the piece, but someone who doesn’t exhibit the qualities associated traditionally with a hero, such as bravery or moral fortitude.

“The Sopranos” is an outstanding television drama that was made by HBO and is a story about Italian-American mobsters in New Jersey. “The Sopranos” has made more money than any other television series in the history of cable television. It’s “must see TV” …

19. Navajo relative APACHE
The Apache are a group of Native American peoples originally from the Southwest US. The Navajo are a separate but related people, through culture and language, and are often described to as “Apachean”.

20. Super Smash Bros. Brawl console WII
“Super Smash Bros.” is a series of fighting games played on the Wii video game console. Apparently it’s very popular …

21. Pole, for one SLAV
The Slavic peoples are in the majority in communities covering over half of Europe. This large ethnic group is traditionally broken down into three smaller groups:

– the West Slavic (including Czechs and Poles)
– the East Slavic (including Russians and Ukrainians)
– the South Slavic (including Bulgarians and Serbs)

23. Party person POL
Politician (pol.)

31. Real time news source TWITTERFEED
A publisher can use a Twitterfeed to feed content (such as these blog posts) to Twitter users. I suppose I should look into that …

34. Many a Saudi SUNNI MUSLIM
The Islamic sects of Sunni and Shia Muslims differ in the belief of who should have taken over leadership of the Muslim faithful after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Followers of the Sunni tradition agree with the decision that the Prophet Muhammad’s confidante Abu Bakr was the right choice to become the first Caliph of the Islamic nation. Followers of the Shia tradition believe that leadership should have stayed within the Prophet Muhammad’s own family.

35. Quickly cooked cut MINUTE STEAK
A minute steak is also referred to as cube steak. It is a cut of top round or top sirloin that is tenderized by pounding with a mallet.

37. Brand no one wants STIGMA
A stigma (plural “stigmata), in a social sense, is a distinguishing mark of disgrace. For example, one might have to suffer the stigma of being in prison.

45. Poppycock ROT
It is thought that the relatively gentle term “poppycock” comes from a Dutch word for “dung” combined with a Latin word for “excrete”. Not so gentle after all …

53. Ocean floor dwellers OCTOPI
The name “octopus” comes from the Greek for “eight-footed”. The most common plural used is “octopuses”, although the Greek plural form “octopodes” is also quite correct. The plural “octopi” isn’t really correct as the inference is that “octopus” is like a second-declension Latin noun, which it isn’t. That said, dictionaries are now citing “octopi” as an acceptable plural.

56. Slow-cooking method involving plastic bags SOUS-VIDE
“Sous-vide” is a cooking method in which the food is sealed in plastic bags and very slowly steamed in a water bath. The term “sous-vide” is French for “under vacuum”.

Down
2. Multimetallic Canadian coin TOONIE
“Toonie” is the familiar name for a two-dollar coin in Canada. A kind blog reader pointed out that the one-dollar bill was replaced with the “loonie” coin, a nickname that comes from the “loon” bird that is on one side of the coin. The “toonie” nickname for the two-dollar coin is imitative of the term “loonie”, and I suppose might be spelled “two-nie”. The toonie replaced the two-dollar bill in 1996. The paper bill cost 6 cents to print and lasted about a year in circulation, whereas the toonie costs 16 cents to mint and should last 20 years. Good move …

3. Guarneri relatives AMATIS
The first of the Amati family to make violins was Andrea Amati, who lived in the 14th century. He was succeeded by his sons, Antonio and Girolamo. In turn, they were succeeded by Girolamo’s son, Nicolo. Nicolo had a few students who achieved fame making musical instruments as well. One was his own son, Girolamo, and another was the famed Antonio Stradivari.

The Guarneri were a family of violin makers from Cremona, Italy who were active in the 17th and 18th centuries. The stringed instruments produced by the Guarneri were considered comparable to those produced by the more famous Amati and Stradivari families. Violinists such as Niccolò Paganini, Jascha Heifetz, and Yehudi Menuhin all used Guarneris as their favored instrument.

5. Cultural group KITH
The word “kith” describes friends and acquaintances, and is used used in the phrase “kith and kin” meaning “friends and family”. “Kith” comes from an Old English word meaning “native country, home”, as the expression “kith and kin” was used originally to mean “country and kinsmen”.

6. Words before a subject IN RE
The term “in re” is Latin, derived from “in” (in) and “res” (thing, matter). “In re” literally means “in the matter”, and is used to mean “in regard to”, or “in the matter of”.

8. One-named Tevye portrayer TOPOL
Chaim Topol (usually called just “Topol”) is an actor from Tel Aviv in Israel. I well remember Topol for his marvelous portrayal of Tevye in the original West End performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” in the sixties. He later reprised the role in the 1971 movie of the show, and then again in a 1990 Broadway revival. Famously, Topol also played good guy Milos Columbo in the James Bond movie “For Your Eyes Only”.

The enduring musical “Fiddler on the Roof” is based on a collection of stories by Sholem Aleichem about Tevye, a milkman living in Tsarist Russia. The musical version of the tales first opened on Broadway in 1964. “Fiddler on the Roof” had such a long run that it became the first musical to reach 3,000 performances.

10. 2000s sitcom set in Houston REBA
Reba McEntire is a country music singer and television actress. McEntire starred in her own sitcom called “Reba” that aired on the WB and the CW cable channels from 2001 to 2007.

11. Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene,” for one EPIC POEM
Edmund Spenser was an English poet, required required reading at school where I grew up. His most famous work is “The Faerie Queen”, an epic poem and one of the longest ever written in the English language.

13. 11th-century Benedictine philosopher ANSELM
Anselm was one of the Archbishops of Canterbury (in England) during Medieval times, from 1093 to 1109. As well as holding the important office within the Church, Anselm was an active and respected philosopher. He is often referred to as the founder of scholasticism, a method of learning that reigned in Medieval universities right across Europe for about 400 years.

22. Pribilof Islands native ALEUT
If you’re looking for an isolated place to live in the US, you might want to try the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, north of Aleutian island chain. The islands are a group of four volcanic “rocks” 200 miles off the coast of Alaska, and 500 miles from the Siberian coast. There are two towns, St. Paul and St. George and a total island population of just under 700.

27. Shepherd memorably rescued during WWI RIN TIN TIN
The original Rin Tin Tin was a real-life 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 …

30. Japanese hands-on healing practice REIKI
The Japanese practice of hands-on healing called “Reiki” was developed Mikao Usui in 1922. “Reiki” is a Japanese term meaning “universal energy”. Practitioners of Reiki believe that they are transferring this universal energy through the palms of the hand into the patient’s body.

33. Reg. symbols TMS
The red triangle on the label of a bottle of Bass Ale was registered in 1875 and is UK Registered Trade Mark (TM) No: 00001, the first trade mark issued in the world.

38. Cooking crust GRATIN
To cook “au gratin” is to prepare something in a shallow dish with a crust of bread or cheese on top. In America we tend to think mainly of potatoes prepared this way, but the technique can be used for many different dishes. Notably, what we call French onion soup is called a “gratinée” in France, an onion soup with some bread and cheese baked on top.

39. One-celled organisms MONADS
A monad is a single-celled organism, especially on of the genus Monas, a flagellate protozoan.

40. Truman’s U.K. counterpart ATTLEE
Clement Attlee served as leader of Britain’s Labour Party and as Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government during the war years under the leadership of Winston Churchill, a Conservative. Attlee swept into power right after WWII in a landslide victory over Churchill and was responsible for major changes not only in Britain but around the waning British Empire. It was under Attlee that former British colonies like India, Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka and Jordan became independent. Also, the Palestine Mandate was terminated in 1948, while he was in office, with the state of Israel being declared the very next day.

43. Tibia neighbors TARSI
The tarsals (also “tarsi”) are the ankle bones, equivalent to the carpals in the wrist.

The tibia is the shin bone, the larger of the two bones right below the knee. The tibia is the strongest weight-bearing bone in the human body. “Tibia” is the Roman name for a Greek flute and it is thought that the shin bone was given the same name because flutes were often fashioned out of the shin bones of animals.

48. Many an “SNL” performer APER
Saturday Night Live (SNL)

51. Work (out) SUSS
The verb “to suss” means “to figure out”. The term originated in the 1950s as police slang, a shortening of “to suspect”.

52. “To travel is to __”: Hans Christian Andersen LIVE
The wonderful storyteller Hans Christian Andersen became very successful in his own lifetime. In 1847 he visited England for the summer and made a triumphal tour of English society’s most fashionable drawing rooms. There Andersen met with the equally successful Charles Dickens, and the two seemed to hit it off. Ten years later Andersen returned to England and stayed for five weeks in Dickens’ home as his guest. Dickens published “David Copperfield” soon after, and supposedly the less than lovable character Uriah Heep was based on Dickens’ house guest Hans Christian Andersen. That wasn’t very nice!

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Lunch To-Go maker STARKIST
9. Espresso feature CREMA
14. Inherit COME INTO
15. Boring tool TREPAN
16. A vacation often involves one ROAD TRIP
17. State birds of Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin ROBINS
18. Tony Soprano, for one ANTIHERO
19. Navajo relative APACHE
20. Super Smash Bros. Brawl console WII
21. Pole, for one SLAV
23. Party person POL
24. Building owner, often LESSOR
28. Air traveler’s concern LEGROOM
31. Real time news source TWITTERFEED
34. Many a Saudi SUNNI MUSLIM
35. Quickly cooked cut MINUTE STEAK
36. Seawater evaporation site SALT PIT
37. Brand no one wants STIGMA
41. Time of existence AGE
42. “__ chance!” NOT A
45. Poppycock ROT
46. Prevails in WINS AT
49. Listing AT A SLANT
53. Ocean floor dwellers OCTOPI
54. Payback REQUITAL
55. Like some angels FALLEN
56. Slow-cooking method involving plastic bags SOUS-VIDE
57. Circular FLYER
58. Not entirely IN A SENSE

Down
1. Rough writer’s output SCRAWL
2. Multimetallic Canadian coin TOONIE
3. Guarneri relatives AMATIS
4. Insta- relative REDI-
5. Cultural group KITH
6. Words before a subject IN RE
7. Arouses STIRS
8. One-named Tevye portrayer TOPOL
9. Frame in a photo lab CROP
10. 2000s sitcom set in Houston REBA
11. Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene,” for one EPIC POEM
12. Its arrival is often celebrated in ritual MANHOOD
13. 11th-century Benedictine philosopher ANSELM
15. Crosses TRAVERSES
22. Pribilof Islands native ALEUT
25. Action movie staple STUNT
26. Cop (to) OWN UP
27. Shepherd memorably rescued during WWI RIN TIN TIN
29. F neighbor G-FLAT
30. Japanese hands-on healing practice REIKI
32. Pair with TIE TO
33. Reg. symbols TMS
34. Without a peep SILENTLY
35. Like love potions MAGICAL
36. Shorten, in a way SAW OFF
38. Cooking crust GRATIN
39. One-celled organisms MONADS
40. Truman’s U.K. counterpart ATTLEE
43. Tibia neighbors TARSI
44. Used to hold food ATE ON
47. Only SOLE
48. Many an “SNL” performer APER
50. Color slightly darker than electric blue AQUA
51. Work (out) SUSS
52. “To travel is to __”: Hans Christian Andersen LIVE

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