LA Times Crossword Answers 6 May 14, Tuesday

CROSSWORD SETTER: Pam Amick Klawitter
THEME: Empty Words … today’s themed answers all start with a synonym of EMPTY:

17A. Fill-in-the-amount document BLANK CHECK
25A. Expanding bullet HOLLOW-POINT
37A. Uncomprehending look VACANT STARE
52A. Like men modeling swimming trunks BARE-CHESTED

61A. Insincere talk, and a hint to the starts of this puzzle’s four other longest entries EMPTY WORDS

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 6m 02s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. SoCal enforcement squad LAPD
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is the third largest local law enforcement agency in the country, after New York PD and Chicago PD. Among other things, LAPD is famous for creating the first Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team in the US, in 1965.

5. “12 Angry Men” star Henry FONDA
Actor Henry Fonda had already started his Hollywood career when along came WWII. Fonda enlisted in the Navy, and served for three years on the destroyer USS Satterlee. Then he served as a Lieutenant Junior Grade in Air Combat Intelligence in the Pacific, earning the Bronze Star.

The powerful 1957 movie “12 Angry Men” was directed by Sidney Lumet, and has a stellar cast of “jury members” including Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Klugman and Ed Begley. If ever there is a movie that clearly was based on a play, it’s this one. Practically the whole film takes place on one set, the jury room.

14. Seat of Allen County, Kansas IOLA
Iola is a city in Southeast Kansas. The city is named for Iola, wife of J. F. Colburn, one of the owners of the land that was chosen as a site for the town in the late 1850s.

15. Queen __ lace ANNE’S
What we call “Queen Anne’s Lace” over here in the US is known by many in the British Isles as “wild carrot”. The roots of Queen Anne’s Lace are indeed edible, just like carrots, but only when they are very young because later in life they get very woody. The wild carrot was given the name Queen Anne’s Lace when it was introduced into America as the flowers do resemble white lace. There is one small red flower in the center of the plant that is said to be a drop of blood that Queen Anne spilled when she pricked herself as she was making the lace.

16. Cherub, in Chambéry ANGE
In France one might see depicted an angel (ange) in a church (eglise).

A cherub (plural “cherubim”) is an angel, with the term ultimately deriving from the Hebrew “kerubh” (plural “kerubhim”) meaning “winged angel”.

Chambéry is a city in southeastern France. The most famous landmark in town is the “Elephants Fountain”, an elaborate structure built in 1838 that includes four elephants squirting water from their trunks.

19. Actress Ward SELA
The actress Sela Ward turns up in crosswords a lot. Ward played Teddy Reed in the TV show “Sisters” in the nineties, and was in “Once and Again” from 1999-2002. I don’t know either show, but I do know Ward from the medical drama “House” in which she played the hospital’s lawyer and Greg House’s ex-partner. That was a fun role, I thought. More recently Ward played a lead role on “CSI: NY” and was a very welcome and much-needed addition to the cast …

23. Place to check your balance, briefly ATM
Automated teller machine (ATM)

30. Put down, in slang DIS
“Dis” is a slang term meaning “insult” that originated in the eighties, and is a shortened form of “disrespect” or “dismiss”.

31. Marinara sauce brand PREGO
The Prego brand of pasta sauce is owned by the Campbell Soup Company. It is actually based on the family recipe of one of the company’s chefs. “Prego” literally means “I pray” in Italian, but it translates in English best as “you’re welcome” when it is used after a “thank you” (“grazie”, in Italian).

Italians use the term “marinara” not for a sauce, but in the name of a recipe. For example, “spaghetti alla marinara” would be a spaghetti dish. The literal translation of the name of this dish would be “mariner’s spaghetti”. The sauce that we call “marinara” is called “salsa di pomodoro” in Italy.

35. Stun, as a perp TASE
Victor Appleton wrote a novel for young adults called “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle”. The company that developed the TASER electroshock weapon named its product as a homage to the novel. The acronym TASER stands for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”.

Perpetrator (perp.)

42. Soviet newspaper PRAVDA
The political newspaper “Pravda” has for about a century been associated with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and now of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. “Pravda” was founded just before WWI by Russian revolutionaries. It was closed down after the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was banned by President Boris Yeltsin in 1991, although a group of journalists opened a new paper with the same title just a few weeks later. Eventually, the new “Pravda” was purchased by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation when it emerged as political force starting in 1996. “Pravda” is Russian for “truth”.

45. Horoscope columnist Sydney OMARR
Sydney Omarr was an astrology consultant to the rich and famous, and author of a horoscope column that appeared in the Los Angeles Times. While Omarr (real name Sidney Kimmelman) was in the US Army he even wrote a horoscope column for “Stars and Stripes”. He claimed that he got the job of writing for “Stars and Stripes” after having given a consultation to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

66. Wife and sister of Osiris ISIS
Isis was the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, as well as the protector of the dead and the goddess of children.

Osiris was the Egyptian god of the underworld. Osiris was the son of Geb the Earth god, and Nut the sky goddess. His wife Isis was also his sister …

67. Seated yoga position LOTUS
“Asana” is a Sanskrit word literally meaning “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

69. Loch with a monster NESS
The Loch Ness monster has been talked about for centuries, but modern interest started in 1933 when a spate of sightings was reported. Those sightings don’t seem to have stopped, with photographs of what is purported to be the monster really sparking the imagination.

71. Crooner Williams ANDY
The singer Andy Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa. He was at the height of his popularity in the sixties as host of “The Andy Williams Show”. It was also in the sixties when Williams adopted his famous theme song “Moon River”, which was written for 1961 movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer. Off the stage, he was a noted collector of Navajo blankets and owned a collection worth over a million dollars.

Down
1. Ad-__: improvise LIB
“Ad libitum” is a Latin phrase meaning “at one’s pleasure”. In common usage the phrase is usually shortened to “ad lib”. On the stage the concept of an “ad lib” is very familiar. For example, an actor may substitute his or her own words for forgotten lines using an ad lib, or a director may instruct an actor to use his or her own words at a particular point in a performance to promote a sense of spontaneity.

2. Internet giant AOL
Founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1983 the company changed its name in 1989 to America Online. As America Online went international, the acronym AOL was used in order to shake off the “America-centric” sound to the name. During the heady days of AOL’s success the company could not keep up with the growing number of subscribers, so people trying to connect often encountered busy signals. That’s when users referred to AOL as “Always Off-Line”.

3. Flat panel in many a sports bar PLASMA TV
Plasma televisions are so called because the screen is made up tiny cells containing electrically charged ionized gases (plasmas). Each of the cells is effectively a tiny fluorescent lamp.

4. Funnyman 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.

5. Ipso __ FACTO
“Ipso facto” is Latin, meaning “by the fact itself”. Ipso facto describes something that is a direct consequence of a particular act, as opposed to something that is the result of some subsequent event. For example, my father was born in Dublin and was an Irish citizen ipso facto. My son was born in California and is an Irish citizen by virtue of being the son of an Irish citizen (“not” ipso facto).

7. Peoria-to-Green Bay dir. NNE
Peoria is the oldest European settlement in the state of Illinois, having been settled by the French in 1680. The city is famous for being cited as “the average American city”. The phrase, “Will it play in Peoria?” is used to mean, “Will it appeal to the mainstream?” It is believed the expression originated as a corruption of, “We shall play in Peoria”, a line used by some actors in the 1890 novel “Five Hundred Dollars” by Horatio Alger, Jr.

The city of Green Bay is the third-largest in the state of Wisconsin, after Milwaukee and Madison. The city is located on an arm of Lake Michigan called Green Bay. People in the area refer to the city as “Green Bay” and the body of water as “the Bay of Green Bay” in order to avoid confusing one with the other.

8. End-of-year abbr. DEC
December is the twelfth month in our calendar but was the tenth month in the old Roman calendar, hence the name “Dec-ember”. Back then there were only ten months in the year. “Ianuarius” (January) and “Februarius” were then added as the eleventh and twelfth months of the year. Soon after, the year was reset and January and February became the first and second months.

10. Sunday speaker PASTOR
A pastor is a minister or priest in some Christian traditions. “Pastor” is the Latin word for “shepherd”.

18. Electric bill meas. KWH
The kilowatt hour (kWh) is a unit of energy, made up of the product of power (kilowatts – kW) and time (hour – h). We see “kWh” all the time, on our electric bills.

23. Lawyer’s gp. ABA
American Bar Association (ABA)

27. Mama bears, in Spain OSAS
In Spanish, “osa” is a female bear, and “oso” is a male.

29. Dead __ Scrolls SEA
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered over a period of years, between 1947 and 1956, in eleven caves on the shores of the Dead Sea. The scrolls are believed to have been written by an ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, although this has been called into question recently. Many of the texts are copies of writings from the Hebrew Bible.

34. Scottish hat TAM
A tam o’shanter is a man’s cap traditionally worn by Scotsmen. “Tams” were originally all blue (and called “blue bonnets”), but as more dyes became readily available they became more colorful. The name of the cap comes from the title character of Robert Burns’ poem “Tam O’Shanter”.

36. Gas additive brand STP
STP motor oil takes its name from “Scientifically Treated Petroleum”.

38. Nick at __ NITE
Nick at Nite is the name given to the late night programming aired on the Nickelodeon channel space. Nick at Nite started broadcasting in 1985 and was conceived as television’s first “oldies” television network.

39. WWII fliers RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the oldest independent air force in the world (i.e. the first air force to become independent of army or navy forces). The RAF was formed during WWI on 1 April 1918, a composite of two earlier forces, the Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army) and the Royal Naval Air Service. The RAF’s “finest hour” has to be the Battle of Britain when the vastly outnumbered British fighters fought off the might of the Luftwaffe causing Hitler to delay his plan to cross the English Channel. This outcome prompted Winston Churchill to utter the memorable words:

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

40. Tony-winning role for Patti LuPone EVA PERON
Eva Perón was the second wife of President Juan Perón who was in office from 1946 to 1955. The Argentine First Lady was known affectionately by the people as “Evita”, the Spanish language diminutive of “Eva”. “Evita” was also the follow-up musical to “Jesus Christ Superstar” for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and was based on the life of Eva Perón.

The singer Patti LuPone won Tonys for playing Eva Peron in “Evita ” and Rose in “Gypsy”.

43. Roller with pips DIE
The numbers on dice are arranged so that the opposite faces add up to seven. Given this arrangement, the numbers 1, 2 and 3 all meet at a common vertex. Now, there are two ways of arranging the 1, 2 and 3 around the common vertex, a so called right-handed die (clockwise 1-2-3) or a left-handed die (counterclockwise 1-2-3). Traditionally, dice used in Western cultures are right-handed, whereas Chinese dice are left-handed. Quite interesting …

46. China’s __-tung MAO TSE
Mao Zedong (also “Mao Tse-tung”) was born on December 16, 1893 in the Hunan Province of China. As Mao was the son of a peasant farmer, his prospects for education were limited. Indeed he left school at age 13 to work on the family farm but did eventually get to secondary school in Changsha, the provincial capital. In the years following, Mao continued his education in Beijing and actually turned down an opportunity to study in France.

47. One of the Musketeers ARAMIS
Alexandre Dumas’ “Three Musketeers” are Athos, Porthos and Aramis, and their young protégé is D’Artagnan. A musketeer was an infantry soldier who was equipped with a musket. Funnily enough, the three “musketeers” really don’t use their muskets, and are better known for their prowess with their swords.

50. Available for breeding AT STUD
The word “stud”, meaning “a male horse kept for breeding”, is derived from the Old English word “stod”, which described a whole herd of horses.

54. Steven’s wife on “Family Ties” ELYSE
The actress Meredith Baxter is best known for playing the mother (Elyse) in the eighties sitcom “Family Ties”. Baxter’s big break on television came with a title role on a short-lived sitcom called “Bridget Loves Bernie”. She ended up marrying David Birney, her co-star on “Bridget Loves Bernie”, and so was known for many years as Meredith Baxter-Birney. She changed her name back to Meredith Baxter when the pair divorced in 1989.

55. Margery of kids’ rhyme DAW
“See Saw Margery Daw” is a nursery rhyme that goes:

See Saw Margery Daw,
Jacky shall have a new master;
Jacky shall earn but a penny a day,
Because he can’t work any faster.

59. Frat party wrap TOGA
In Ancient Rome the classical attire known as a toga (plural “togae”) was usually worn over a tunic. The tunic was made from linen, and the toga itself was a piece of cloth about twenty feet long made from wool. The toga could only be worn by men, and only if those men were Roman citizens. The female equivalent of the toga was called a “stola”.

63. School support org. PTA
Parent-Teacher Association(PTA)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. SoCal enforcement squad LAPD
5. “12 Angry Men” star Henry FONDA
10. Swimming spot POOL
14. Seat of Allen County, Kansas IOLA
15. Queen __ lace ANNE’S
16. Cherub, in Chambéry ANGE
17. Fill-in-the-amount document BLANK CHECK
19. Actress Ward SELA
20. Made sure of SAW TO
21. Dines at home EATS IN
23. Place to check your balance, briefly ATM
25. Expanding bullet HOLLOW-POINT
28. Feathery scarves BOAS
30. Put down, in slang DIS
31. Marinara sauce brand PREGO
32. Bear witness ATTEST
35. Stun, as a perp TASE
37. Uncomprehending look VACANT STARE
41. French girlfriend AMIE
42. Soviet newspaper PRAVDA
45. Horoscope columnist Sydney OMARR
49. Opening for a chorus line TRA
51. Free from bias FAIR
52. Like men modeling swimming trunks BARE-CHESTED
56. Family animal PET
57. With perfection TO A TEE
58. Roofing piece SLATE
60. Prefix with sphere ATMO-
61. Insincere talk, and a hint to the starts of this puzzle’s four other longest entries EMPTY WORDS
66. Wife and sister of Osiris ISIS
67. Seated yoga position LOTUS
68. Increase, as prices GO UP
69. Loch with a monster NESS
70. Garden tool SPADE
71. Crooner Williams ANDY

Down
1. Ad-__: improvise LIB
2. Internet giant AOL
3. Flat panel in many a sports bar PLASMA TV
4. Funnyman Carvey DANA
5. Ipso __ FACTO
6. Waiting to talk to a real person, say ON HOLD
7. Peoria-to-Green Bay dir. NNE
8. End-of-year abbr. DEC
9. Out of kilter ASKEW
10. Sunday speaker PASTOR
11. Baby shower bodysuit ONESIE
12. Leering at OGLING
13. Makeshift shelter LEAN-TO
18. Electric bill meas. KWH
22. Pop up APPEAR
23. Lawyer’s gp. ABA
24. Day care attendee TOT
26. Ignores the trash can LITTERS
27. Mama bears, in Spain OSAS
29. Dead __ Scrolls SEA
33. Not widely available SCARCE
34. Scottish hat TAM
36. Gas additive brand STP
38. Nick at __ NITE
39. WWII fliers RAF
40. Tony-winning role for Patti LuPone EVA PERON
43. Roller with pips DIE
44. Gallery showing ART
45. Gain possession of OBTAIN
46. China’s __-tung MAO TSE
47. One of the Musketeers ARAMIS
48. Freshen, as the salad RETOSS
50. Available for breeding AT STUD
53. Sexy-looking shoes HEELS
54. Steven’s wife on “Family Ties” ELYSE
55. Margery of kids’ rhyme DAW
59. Frat party wrap TOGA
62. Unruly head of hair MOP
63. School support org. PTA
64. Flop DUD
65. Undercover agent SPY

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