LA Times Crossword Answers 30 Apr 14, Wednesday

Share today’s solution with a friend:
FacebookTwitterGoogleEmail

CROSSWORD SETTER: Steve Blais
THEME: Angry Clues … each of today’s themed answers is a common phrase interpreted as what a certain fictional character might do if angered. Well, they’re all fictional except Santa:

17A. What an angry mermaid might do? GO OFF THE DEEP END
26A. What an angry Santa might do? HIT THE ROOF
46A. What an angry Humpty Dumpty might do? GO TO PIECES
59A. What an angry witch might do? FLY OFF THE HANDLE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 6m 57s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

10. Vishnu incarnation RAMA
In the Hindu tradition, the god known as Vishnu has seven different avatars i.e. incarnations or manifestations. Rama is the seventh of these avatars.

14. “This Old House” carpenter Norm ABRAM
Norm Abram is the master carpenter who appeared on the PBS show “This Old House”, and who later starred in the spinoff series called “The New Yankee Workshop”.

“This Old House” first aired in 1979, on PBS, with Bob Vila as host. After ten years on the show, Vila was able to make extra income with commercial endorsements. These earnings caused conflict with commercial-free PBS, and so Vila was replaced by Steve Thomas.

15. Like many a shoppe OLDE
The word “olde” wasn’t actually used much earlier than the 1920s. “Olde” was introduced to give a quaint antique feel to brand names, shop names etc.

16. Color of Death’s dart, in “Venus and Adonis” EBON
“Venus and Adonis” is a complex poem by William Shakespeare, and quite racy. The plot of the poem is based on extracts from Book X “Metamorphoses”, the narrative poem by Roman poet Ovid. Two lines from Shakespeare’s poem are:

Love’s golden arrow at him should have fled,
And not Death’s ebon dart, to strike dead.

26. What an angry Santa might do? HIT THE ROOF
Saint Nicholas of Myra is the inspiration for Santa Claus. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra (now in modern-day Turkey) during the 4th century AD, and was known for being generous to the poor. Centuries after he died, his remains were desecrated by Italian sailors and moved to Bari in Italy. One legend has it that the relics were moved again centuries later and reburied in the grounds of Jerpoint Abbey in Co. Kilkenny in Ireland, where you can visit the grave today. I choose to believe that Santa Claus’s relics are indeed buried in Ireland …

30. Frozen dessert franchise TCBY
TCBY is a chain of stores selling frozen yogurt, founded in 1981 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The acronym TCBY originally stood for “This Can’t Be Yogurt”, but this had to be changed due to a lawsuit being pressed by a competitor called “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt”. These days TCBY stands for “The Country’s Best Yogurt”.

34. Part of NCAA: Abbr. ATH
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910.

36. Pong developer ATARI
At one point, the electronics and video game manufacturer Atari was the fastest growing company in US history. However, Atari never really recovered from the video game industry crash of 1983.

Do you remember the arcade video game that was like a game of tennis, with paddles moving up and down to hit what looked like a ball, over what looked like a net? Well, that was the game called “Pong”.

37. Supermodel Cheryl TIEGS
Cheryl Tiegs was only 17-years-old when she appeared as a model on the cover of “Glamour” magazine. After that Tiegs became famous for sequential appearances in the “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue” throughout the seventies.

39. 1860s govt. for four years CSA
The Confederate States of America (CSA) set up government in 1861 just before Abraham Lincoln took office. Jefferson Davis was selected as President of the CSA at its formation and retained the post for the life of the government.

41. Accustom ENURE
“Enure” is a variant spelling of “inure”, meaning to harden oneself against the effects of, to accustom oneself to.

42. Western Wyoming county TETON
Teton County, Wyoming is home to the Grand Teton National Park. Teton has the distinction of having the second highest personal per capita income of any county in the US ($94,672 in 2010), second only to New York County ($111,386 in 2010).

Grand Teton National Park is located just south of Yellowstone NP, and a must see if you are visiting the latter. The park is named after the tallest peak in the magnificent Teton Range known as Grand Teton. The origins of the name “Teton” is not very clear, although my favorite story is that it was named by French trappers, as the word “tetons” in French means “breasts”!

44. __-Foy, Quebec STE
Sainte-Foy was a city in its own right, but as of 2002 it is a neighborhood in Quebec City. Sainte-Foy is an important part of the larger city, partly because it is home to the area’s main airport, Jean Lesage International.

45. Tabula __: blank slate RASA
Tabula rasa (plural: tabulae rasae) is the idea that people are born with a “blank slate”, and that knowledge comes from experience and perception.

46. What an angry Humpty Dumpty might do? GO TO PIECES
Humpty Dumpty is a character in a nursery rhyme, actually an egg although that isn’t specifically called out in the original rhyme:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

63. Smallest Great Lake by volume ERIE
Lake Erie is the fourth largest of the five Great Lakes by area (Lake Ontario is the smallest). The lake takes its name from the Erie tribe of Native Americans that used to live along its southern shore. Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes by volume and the shallowest, something for which nearby residents must be quite grateful. Being relatively shallow, much of Erie freezes over part way through most winters putting an end to most of the lake effect snow that falls in the snow belt extending from the lake’s edge.

65. __’ Pea SWEE
Originally Popeye used the nickname “Swee’pea” to address his girlfriend Olive Oyl. Then along comes a baby, found on Popeye’s doorstep. Popeye adopts the little guy and raises him, calling him “Swee’Pea”.

66. Actress Meg RYAN
Meg Ryan is the stage name of the actress Margaret Mary Hyra. Ryan’s big break came with the excellent 1989 movie “When Harry Met Sally” from which she went on to star in some of the greatest romantic comedies ever made.

Down
1. Internet connectivity frustrations LAGS
Tell me about it …

3. Titan who gave fire to humans PROMETHEUS
In Greek mythology, Prometheus was one of the Titans. He was said to have created man from clay as well as giving fire to humanity, allowing the human race to prosper.

5. “Unbelievable” techno-funk band EMF
EMF is an alternative rock dance band from England. EMF’s biggest hit was 1990’s “Unbelievable” that made it to the number one spot here in the US. The acronym EMF supposedly stands for “Epsom Mad Funkers”.

6. Philosopher Locke JOHN
John Locke was the English philosopher who postulated that the mind is a blank slate (or “tabula rasa”) when we are born, and that we fill that slate with our experiences and observations.

8. Former “Tonight Show” announcer Hall EDD
Edd Hall is most famous as a former announcer for Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show”.

11. Assist with a crime ABET
The word “abet” comes into English from the Old French “abeter” meaning “to bait” or “to harass with dogs” (it literally means “to make bite”). This sense of encouraging something bad to happen morphed into our modern usage of “abet” meaning to aid or encourage someone in a crime.

12. Chamonix peak MONT
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc is on the eastern border of France, in the Alps. Famously it was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first ever Winter Olympic Games.

13. Garcia of “Ocean’s Eleven” ANDY
Andy Garcia is a Hollywood actor from Havana, Cuba. Garcia moved to Miami with his family when he was 5 years old, just after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Andy’s father was an avocado farmer in Cuba, and in Miami built a million-dollar fragrance business. Recently, Garcia is known for playing ruthless casino owner Terry Benedict in the “Ocean’s Eleven” series of movies.

18. Pitch-changing pro TUNER
A piano tuner, perhaps.

19. Brian who produced or co-produced several Talking Heads albums 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.

Talking Heads was a New Wave band from New York City, formed in 1974 and active until 1991. I couldn’t name one of their songs, to be honest …

27. Turner memoir I, TINA
“I, Tina” is the 1986 autobiography of Tina Turner. The book was so successful it was adapted into a movie called “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” The film version was released in 1993 and starring Angela Bassett as Tina Turner.

Tina Turner is actually a stage name used by Anna Mae Bullock, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Turner has always loved Europe and moved there in the eighties. She now splits her time between her homes in England, France and Switzerland.

31. String-pulling game CAT’S CRADLE
Cat’s Cradle is likely to be one of the oldest games played by man, one that sprung up independently in all parts of the world. The game is played by two people and involves the making of a series of figures with a loop of string held by the fingers.

36. Lennox of the Eurythmics ANNIE
Eurythmics is the name used by British pop duo Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. The pair had previously performed together in the band called the Tourists. Eurythmics had their big break in 1983 with the release of the single “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”, a lovely song.

43. Book club leader for 15 years OPRAH
“Oprah’s Book Club” was a segment that started in 1996 on “The Oprah Winfrey Show”. Each book reviewed was a personal recommendation by Winfrey herself. The first book reviewed was “The Deep End of the Ocean” by Jacquelyn Mitchard. The original book club ended in 2011, but there’s now a reboot known as “Oprah’s Book Club 2.0” that focuses on digital media now that “The Oprah Winfrey Show” is no more.

54. Branch of Islam SHIA
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.

55. Hammer part PEEN
The peen of a hammer is on the head, and is the side of the head that is opposite the striking surface. Often the peen is in the shape of a hemisphere (as in a ball-peen hammer), but usually it is shaped like a claw (mainly for removing nails).

61. Aquafresh tube letters ADA
American Dental Association (ADA)

Aquafresh is a toothpaste that was introduced in 1973. The original product delivered two “stripes” from the tube: a white paste for cavity protection and an aqua gel for fresh breath. This “double protection” formula was augmented in 1983 to “triple protection” with the addition of a red gel for healthy gums.

Share today’s solution with a friend:
FacebookTwitterGoogleEmail

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Minor error LAPSE
6. Catcall JEER
10. Vishnu incarnation RAMA
14. “This Old House” carpenter Norm ABRAM
15. Like many a shoppe OLDE
16. Color of Death’s dart, in “Venus and Adonis” EBON
17. What an angry mermaid might do? GO OFF THE DEEP END
20. Not many SOME
21. Pop’s bro UNC
22. Hard to figure out KNOTTY
23. “Baseball Tonight” airer ESPN
25. Not good POOR
26. What an angry Santa might do? HIT THE ROOF
30. Frozen dessert franchise TCBY
34. Part of NCAA: Abbr. ATH
35. Don’t exist AREN’T
36. Pong developer ATARI
37. Supermodel Cheryl TIEGS
39. 1860s govt. for four years CSA
40. Still in bed NOT UP
41. Accustom ENURE
42. Western Wyoming county TETON
44. __-Foy, Quebec STE
45. Tabula __: blank slate RASA
46. What an angry Humpty Dumpty might do? GO TO PIECES
48. Opportunity, metaphorically DOOR
50. Backside REAR
51. Verdict challenge APPEAL
54. Spot for a facial SPA
56. Pool float RAFT
59. What an angry witch might do? FLY OFF THE HANDLE
62. Undecided TORN
63. Smallest Great Lake by volume ERIE
64. Where subs are assembled DELIS
65. __’ Pea SWEE
66. Actress Meg RYAN
67. Skilled ADEPT

Down
1. Internet connectivity frustrations LAGS
2. Peek-__ A-BOO
3. Titan who gave fire to humans PROMETHEUS
4. Least risky SAFEST
5. “Unbelievable” techno-funk band EMF
6. Philosopher Locke JOHN
7. Gas alternative: Abbr. ELEC
8. Former “Tonight Show” announcer Hall EDD
9. Be strongly pervaded with REEK OF
10. Keep apprised of one’s activities, as a superior REPORT TO
11. Assist with a crime ABET
12. Chamonix peak MONT
13. Garcia of “Ocean’s Eleven” ANDY
18. Pitch-changing pro TUNER
19. Brian who produced or co-produced several Talking Heads albums ENO
24. Terrible twos, one hopes PHASE
25. Chips-to-be POTATO
26. Fan’s opposite HATER
27. Turner memoir I, TINA
28. Parish head RECTOR
29. First stage ONSET
31. String-pulling game CAT’S CRADLE
32. Ogre BRUTE
33. “Holy mackerel!” YIPES!
36. Lennox of the Eurythmics ANNIE
38. Elementary level GRADE ONE
43. Book club leader for 15 years OPRAH
46. One following a course GOLFER
47. Worked for EARNED
49. Big ape OAF
51. Times to call, in ads AFTS
52. Field machine PLOW
53. Flammable pile PYRE
54. Branch of Islam SHIA
55. Hammer part PEEN
57. Lose one’s cool FLIP
58. Quiz TEST
60. Do one’s best TRY
61. Aquafresh tube letters ADA

Return to top of page