LA Times Crossword Answers 8 May 14, Thursday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: David Poole
THEME: Leading Letters … each of todays themed answers is made up of two words, each starting with the same letter, and that letter is silent in the second word:

16A. “Atonement” actress KEIRA KNIGHTLEY
23A. Aviation pioneer WILBUR WRIGHT
37A. Dr. Phil, e.g. POP PSYCHOLOGIST
52A. Kitschy lawn decorations GARDEN GNOMES
61A. Captains of industry CORPORATE CZARS

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 6m 59s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

5. First name in jazz ELLA
Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song”, had a hard and tough upbringing. She was raised by her mother alone in Yonkers, New York. Her mother died while Ella was still a schoolgirl, and around that time the young girl became less interested in her education. She fell in with a bad crowd, even working as a lookout for a bordello and as a Mafia numbers runner. She ended up in reform school, from which she escaped, and found herself homeless and living on the streets for a while. Somehow Fitzgerald managed to get herself a spot singing in the Apollo Theater in Harlem. From there her career took off and as they say, the rest is history.

9. “The Kite Runner” boy AMIR
“The Kite Runner” was the first novel by Khaled Hosseini, published in 2003. The very successful book became an equally successful film released in 2007. “The Kite Runner” tells the story of a young boy called Amir growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan. Hosseini is a medical doctor, but after the success of “The Kite Runner” he gave up his practice and is now a fulltime write. His second book “A Thousand Splendid Suns” is also a great success.

13. Police jacket acronym SWAT
SWAT is an acronym for Special Weapons and Tactics. The first SWAT team was pulled together in the Los Angeles Police Department in 1968.

14. Place LIEU
As one might imagine, “in lieu” comes into English from the Old French word “lieu” meaning “place”, which in turn is derived from the Latin “locum”, also meaning “place”. So, “in lieu” means “in place of”.

15. Peace Nobelist Walesa LECH
Lech Walesa worked as an electrician in the Gdansk Shipyards in Poland. Walesa was active in the trade union movement in the days when unions were not welcome behind the Iron Curtain. His efforts resulted in the founding of Solidarity, the first independent trade union in Soviet-controlled territory. For his work, Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and in 1990 he became the first democratically elected President of Poland. He has lost support in Poland in recent years, but he is a very popular booking on the international speaking circuit.

16. “Atonement” actress KEIRA KNIGHTLEY
The English actress Keira Knightley had her big break in movies when she co-starred in 2002’s “Bend It Like Beckham”. Knightley played one of my favorite movie roles, Elizabeth Bennett in 2005’s “Pride and Prejudice”. Knightley won a Golden Globe for that performance, although that 2005 film isn’t the best adaptation of the Austen’s novel in my opinion.

“Atonement” is an excellent 2007 film adaptation of a 2001 novel of the same name by author Ian McEwan. Stars of the movie are Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, with 12-year-old Irish actress Saoirse Ronan in a supporting role that earned her an Oscar nomination.

19. Many a car SEDAN
The American “sedan” car is the equivalent of the British “saloon” car. By definition, a sedan car has two rows of seating and a separate trunk (boot in the UK), although in some models the engine can be at the rear of the car.

20. Abu Dhabi is its cap. UAE
Abu Dhabi is one of the seven Emirates that make up the federation known as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The two largest members of the UAE (geographically) are Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the only two of the seven members that have veto power over UAE policy. Before 1971, the UAE was a British Protectorate, a collection of sheikdoms. The sheikdoms entered into a maritime truce with Britain in 1835, after which they became known as the Trucial States, derived from the word “truce”.

21. Cadillac compact ATS
The Cadillac model known as the ATS is so called because it is an “A-Series Touring Sedan”.

23. Aviation pioneer WILBUR WRIGHT
Aviation pioneer Wilbur was the older of the two Wright brothers, and he was born in 1867 in Millville, Indiana. By the time that the younger Orville was born in 1871, the family was living in Dayton, Ohio. The Wrights spent a few years of their youth back in Richmond, Indiana, before settling in Dayton for the rest of their lives. The brothers both died in Dayton; Wilbur in 1912 and Orville in 1948.

28. Dickens pen name BOZ
The English author Charles Dickens used the pen-name “Boz” early in his career. He had already established himself as the most famous novelist of the Victorian Era when he came to visit America in 1842. He was honored by 3,000 of New York’s elite at a “Boz Ball” in the Park Theater.

31. Motown team LIONS
The Detroit Lions are the NFL team that plays home games at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. The team was founded way back in 1929 as the Portsmouth Spartans from Portsmouth, Ohio. The Spartans joined the NFL during the Great Depression as other franchises collapsed. However, the Spartans couldn’t command a large enough gate in Portsmouth so the team was sold and relocated to Detroit in 1934.

32. The Joker, to Batman ENEMY
The Joker is one of the most colorful of Batman’s nemeses, introduced into the comic books in 1940, appearing in the first ever edition of “Batman”. He has been played on screen by some colorful characters. In the original television series he was portrayed by Cesar Romero, and on the big screen by Jack Nicholson. What great casting!

33. Kentucky border river OHIO
The Ohio is the largest tributary of the Mississippi by volume. In fact where the two rivers meet, in Cairo, Illinois, the Ohio is actually the larger of the pair.

35. Some four-year degs. BSS
Bachelor of Science (BS)

36. Cinematic FX CGI
Computer-generated imagery (CGI)

“Effects” as in “special effects”, or “FX”.

37. Dr. Phil, e.g. POP PSYCHOLOGIST
Dr. Phil (McGraw) met Oprah Winfrey when he was hired to work with her as a legal consultant during the Amarillo Texas beef trial (when the industry sued Oprah for libel over “Mad Cow Disease” statements). Oprah was impressed with Dr. Phil and invited him onto her show, and we haven’t stopped seeing him since …

43. “Up, up and away” carrier TWA
The song “Up, Up and Away”, famously used by TWA in its advertising, was released by the 5th Dimension in 1967.

44. Suffix in taxonomy -OTA
e.g. Zygomcota, Ascomycota.

Taxonomy is the classification of organisms or maybe even just items into groups or categories. We are most familiar with the classification of organisms in the major taxonomic ranks of:

– Life
– Domain
– Kingdom
– Phylum
– Class
– Order
– Family
– Genus
– Species

45. Slobbering toon dog ODIE
Odie is Garfield’s best friend and is a slobbery beagle, a character in Jim Davis’s comic strip.

46. Host EMCEE
“Emcee” come from “MC”, an acronym standing for Master or Mistress of Ceremonies.

49. Maker of XX antiperspirants ARRID
Arrid is an antiperspirant deodorant brand introduced in the thirties. Slogans associated with Arrid have been “Don’t be half-safe – use Arrid to be sure”, “Stress stinks! Arrid works!” and “Get a little closer”.

52. Kitschy lawn decorations GARDEN GNOMES
In English folklore, the lovable fairy’s anti-hero is the diminutive gnome, an evil ugly character. Over the centuries, the gnome has become more lovable so we now have garden gnomes and even the Travelocity Gnome …

“Kitsch” is a German word, an adjective that means “gaudy, trash”.

55. Test for srs. GRE
Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

56. Chargers linebacker Manti __ TE’O
Manti Te’o is college football player who has been in the news a lot lately. Te’o was noted for playing particularly well after the death of his grandmother and girlfriend. It turned out that his relationship with the “girlfriend” was an online affair and a hoax. A male acquaintance of Te’o had posed as a girl and lured him into a relationship. Wanting to put an end to the deception, the hoaxer “killed off” the girlfriend by “giving” her leukemia.

57. Matthew Broderick originally provided his adult voice SIMBA
Simba is the main character in the Disney animated feature, “The Lion King”. “Simba” is the Swahili word for “lion”.

Matthew Broderick is an actor from Manhattan, New York. Broderick played two of my favorite characters in movies, namely the title role in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and the lead in “War Games”. Broderick is a somewhat controversial character in parts of Ireland as he caused a car accident there in 1987 while driving with his then girlfriend actress Jennifer Grey. The mother and daughter in the other car involved in the accident were killed instantly. Broderick was charged with causing death by dangerous driving (his car was on the wrong side of the road) but was found guilty of a lesser charge and fined $175.

66. Apiarist in a 1997 film ULEE
“Ulee’s Gold” is a highly respected film from 1997 in which Peter Fonda plays the title role of Ulee. Ulee’s “gold” is the honey that Ulee produces. It is a favorite role for Peter Fonda and he has shared that playing Ulee brought to mind his father, Henry Fonda, who himself kept a couple of hives. So if you see Peter Fonda in “Ulee’s Gold” you’re witnessing some characteristics that Peter saw in his father.

An apiary is an area where bees are kept. The Latin word for “bee” is “apis”.

67. Lady’s business? AVON
In 1886, a young man called David McConnell was selling books door-to-door. To enhance his sales numbers he was giving out free perfume to the ladies of the houses that he visited. Seeing as his perfume was more popular than his books, he founded the California Perfume Company in New York City and started manufacturing and selling across the country. The company name was changed to Avon in 1939, and the famous “Avon Calling” marketing campaign was launched in 1954.

69. Genesis creator SEGA
The Genesis is a video game console sold in the US by the Japanese company Sega. In the rest of the world, the console is sold as the Mega Drive, as Sega couldn’t get the rights to the Mega Drive name in the US.

Down
2. Oh-so-dainty, in Devon TWEE
In the UK, something “twee” is cutesy or overly nice. “Twee” came from “tweet”, which is the cutesy, baby-talk way of saying “sweet”.

Devon is a county in the southwest of England. The county town of Devon is Exeter, and the largest city in the county is Plymouth, the port from which the Mayflower Pilgrims departed.

5. Lodge logo animal ELK
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) was founded in 1868, and is a social club that has about a million members today. It started out as a group of men getting together in a “club” in order to get around the legal opening hours of taverns in New York City. The club took on a new role as it started to look out for poor families of members who passed away. The club now accepts African Americans as members (since the seventies) and women (since the nineties), but atheists still aren’t welcome.

6. Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer LIN
Maya Lin is a Chinese American born in Athens Ohio, and is an artist and architect. Lin’s most famous work is the moving Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Lin was only 21-years-old when she won a public design competition in 1981 to create the memorial. Although her design is very fitting, sadly Lin was not a popular choice for the work given her Asian heritage. As she said herself, she probably would not have been picked had the competition been judged with the knowledge of who was behind each submission.

7. Welcoming ring LEI
“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.

8. Bodes AUGURS
The verb “to augur” means “to bode”, to serve as an omen. The term comes from the name of religious officials in Ancient Rome called augurs whose job it was to interpret signs and omens.

10. Blanc who voiced Bugs MEL
Mel Blanc is known as “The Man of a Thousand Voices”. We’ve all heard Mel Blanc at one time or another, I am sure. His was the voice behind such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Woody Woodpecker, Elmer Fudd and Barney Rubble. And the words on Blanc’s tombstone are … “That’s All Folks”.

11. When mammoths roamed ICE AGE
A relatively well-preserved set of woolly mammoth remains were discovered in Siberia in 2012. The remains included some intact cells, and there is talk about the possibility of cloning the animal who died between 4,000 and 10,000 years ago. Scary stuff …

17. Indigo source ANIL
Anil is another name for the indigo plant, as well as the name for the blue indigo dye that is obtained from it. The color of anil is relatively close to navy blue.

18. Half a bray -HAW
“Heehaw” said the donkey.

24. Chad neighbor LIBYA
The Italo-Turkish War was fought between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy from September 1911 and October 1912. At the end of the conflict the Ottoman Empire ceded to Italy the three provinces of Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. These provinces became Italian North Africa, and ultimately the country that we know today as Libya. The name “Libya” comes from the Ancient Greek “Libúē”, the historical name for Northwest Africa.

The landlocked African country called Chad takes its name from the second largest wetland on the continent: Lake Chad.

25. Anjou cousin BOSC
Bosc is a cultivar of the European Pear grown in the northwest of the United States. The Bosc is that pear with a skin the color of a potato, with a long neck. I always seem to use the potato as my point of reference. How Irish am I …?

The Anjou pear is a cultivar of the European Pear. The Anjou pear is thought to have originated in Belgium or France (Anjou is a province in the Loire Valley of western France).

27. Covent Garden architect Jones INIGO
Inigo Jones was a British architect, a native of London. The most famous Jones’s design is probably London’s Covent Garden Square.

Covent Garden in London’s West End is associated with the Royal Opera House that is located in the area, and with the former fruit and vegetable market that used to sit right at the center of the district. The name “Covent Garden” comes from the fact that there once was a walled garden in the area owned by the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of St. Peter in Westminster. The abbey rented out the walled garden calling it “Convent Garden”, and this morphed into the area’s current name.

39. Another, in Acapulco OTRO
The Mexican city of Acapulco is on the southwest coast of the country, in the state of Guerrero. The name “Acapulco” translates from the local language into “at the big reeds”.

40. Director Lupino IDA
Actress Ida Lupino was also a successful director, in the days when women weren’t very welcome behind the camera. Lupino had already directed four “women’s” short films when she stepped in to direct the 1953 drama “The Hitch-Hiker”, taking over when the original director became ill. “The Hitch-Hiker” was the first film noir movie to be directed by a woman, and represented somewhat of a breakthrough for women in the industry.

41. Milne’s “Now We Are __” SIX
“Now We Are Six” is a collection of children’s verses by A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends. It was published in 1927, and illustrated by E. H. Shepard, the man behind the illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories as well as Kenneth Graham’s equally famous story “The Wind in the Willows”. Indeed, eleven of the verses in “Now We Are Six” are illustrated with images of Winnie the Pooh. Sounds like one for the grand-kids …

46. Frittata ingredient EGG
A “frittata” is an omelet recipe from Italy. The word “frittata” is Italian, and comes from “fritto” meaning “fried”.

47. Neiman’s partner MARCUS
Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman, and her husband A. L. Neiman, were partners with a tidy of profit of $25,000 from a business they had founded. This was 1907 Atlanta, and they were offered the chance to invest in a new company that was just starting to make “sugary soda drinks”, a company called Coca-Cola. The partners declined, instead returning to their home of Dallas and founding a department store they called Neiman-Marcus.

48. Like jambalaya CREOLE
Jambalaya is a Creole dish from Louisiana. The recipe has its origins in the Caribbean, and the recipe we know today also has Spanish and French influences.

49. Old gathering places AGORAS
In early Greece the “agora” was a place of assembly. Often the assemblies held there were quite formal, perhaps for the reading of a proclamation. Later in Greek history, things became less formal as the agora evolved into a market place. Our contemporary word “agoraphobia” comes from these agorae, in the sense that an agoraphobe has a fear of open spaces, a fear of “public meeting places”.

50. Fam. tree member DESC
Descendant (desc.)

53. Con lead-in NEO-
By definition, a neoconservative supports the use of American power and military to bring democracy, liberty, equality and human rights to other countries.

60. European wine area ASTI
Asti is a sparkling white wine from the Piedmont region of Italy, and is named for the town of Asti around which the wine is produced. The wine used to be called Asti Spumante, and it had a very bad reputation as a “poor man’s champagne”. The “Spumante” was dropped in a marketing attempt at rebranding associated with a reduction in the amount of residual sugar in the wine.

62. Pump spec. REG
The difference between a premium and regular gasoline is its octane rating. The octane rating is measure of the resistance of the gasoline to auto-ignition i.e. it’s resistance to ignition just by virtue of being compressed in the cylinder. This auto-ignition is undesirable as multiple-cylinder engines are designed so that ignition within each cylinder takes place precisely when the plug sparks, and not before. If ignition occurs before the spark is created, the resulting phenomenon is called “knocking”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Fast money sources ATMS
5. First name in jazz ELLA
9. “The Kite Runner” boy AMIR
13. Police jacket acronym SWAT
14. Place LIEU
15. Peace Nobelist Walesa LECH
16. “Atonement” actress KEIRA KNIGHTLEY
19. Many a car SEDAN
20. Abu Dhabi is its cap. UAE
21. Cadillac compact ATS
23. Aviation pioneer WILBUR WRIGHT
28. Dickens pen name BOZ
31. Motown team LIONS
32. The Joker, to Batman ENEMY
33. Kentucky border river OHIO
35. Some four-year degs. BSS
36. Cinematic FX CGI
37. Dr. Phil, e.g. POP PSYCHOLOGIST
43. “Up, up and away” carrier TWA
44. Suffix in taxonomy -OTA
45. Slobbering toon dog ODIE
46. Host EMCEE
49. Maker of XX antiperspirants ARRID
51. Fire AXE
52. Kitschy lawn decorations GARDEN GNOMES
55. Test for srs. GRE
56. Chargers linebacker Manti __ TE’O
57. Matthew Broderick originally provided his adult voice SIMBA
61. Captains of industry CORPORATE CZARS
66. Apiarist in a 1997 film ULEE
67. Lady’s business? AVON
68. Work in the cutting room EDIT
69. Genesis creator SEGA
70. Email SEND
71. Circle opening? SEMI-

Down
1. Petitions ASKS
2. Oh-so-dainty, in Devon TWEE
3. Hotel employee MAID
4. Soda fountain freebie STRAW
5. Lodge logo animal ELK
6. Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer LIN
7. Welcoming ring LEI
8. Bodes AUGURS
9. Superhero’s cover ALTER EGO
10. Blanc who voiced Bugs MEL
11. When mammoths roamed ICE AGE
12. Musician’s asset RHYTHM
17. Indigo source ANIL
18. Half a bray -HAW
22. Place for a mud bath? STY
24. Chad neighbor LIBYA
25. Anjou cousin BOSC
26. Still woolly, perhaps UNSHORN
27. Covent Garden architect Jones INIGO
28. Conk BOP
29. “So that’s your game!” OHO!
30. Speed ZIP
34. Went (for) OPTED
36. Demand as due CLAIM
38. Fragrant climbing plant SWEET PEA
39. Another, in Acapulco OTRO
40. Director Lupino IDA
41. Milne’s “Now We Are __” SIX
42. Where a driver is often needed TEE
46. Frittata ingredient EGG
47. Neiman’s partner MARCUS
48. Like jambalaya CREOLE
49. Old gathering places AGORAS
50. Fam. tree member DESC
53. Con lead-in NEO-
54. King and queen, but not prince SIZES
58. Identified, as an undercover cop MADE
59. Beret’s lack BRIM
60. European wine area ASTI
62. Pump spec. REG
63. Blvd. relative AVE
64. Whole bunch TON
65. Remnant END

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