LA Times Crossword Answers 12 Jul 14, Saturday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Barry C. Silk
THEME: None
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 8m 37s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Strategy rarely involving a power hitter SQUEEZE PLAY
In baseball, a squeeze play is one in which a batter bunts the ball expecting to be thrown out at first, but gives a runner at third base a chance to score. In a safety squeeze the runner at third waits to see where the bunt is going before heading for home. In a suicide squeeze, the runner heads home as soon as the pitcher throws the ball.

12. Class fig. GPA
Grade point average (GPA)

15. 1959 Fabian hit TURN ME LOOSE
“Fabian” is the stage name of singer Fabiano Anthony Forte, a teen idol from the fifties and sixties. Fabian came from South Philadelphia just like Frankie Avalon, and so Fabian was always somewhat in Avalon’s shadow. Now decades after his star faded, Fabian is on the road and performing with Avalon.

16. Art of MGM? ARS
It seems that the phrase “art for art’s sake” has its origins in France in the nineteenth century, where the slogan is expressed as “l’art pour l’art”. The Latin version “Ars gratia artis” came much later, in 1924 when MGM’s publicist chose it for the studio’s logo, sitting under Leo the lion. Who’d a thunk it?

17. Oil field workers ROUSTABOUTS
A “roustabout” in an oil field is a worker who does just about everything that’s needed, including a lot of jobs that require little or no training. The term is also used for a carnival or circus laborer. It was this usage that features in the Elvis Presley song and movie “The Roustabout”, released in 1964.

18. 1909 ballet “__ Sylphides” LES
“Les Sylphides” is a 1909 ballet choreographed by Michel Fokine with music by Frédéric Chopin. The ballet is described as non-narrative, meaning that it has no story but simply showcases the dancing.

19. Portuguese is its official lang. ANG
Angola is a country in south-central Africa, on the west coast. Angola is the fourth largest diamond exporter in Africa, after Botswana, the Congo and South Africa. Such a valuable export hasn’t really helped the living standard of the country’s citizens as life expectancy and infant mortality rates are among the poorest on the continent.

20. Scotland’s __ Awe LOCH
Loch Awe is the third-largest freshwater loch (lake) in Scotland by area, after Loch Lomond and Loch Ness.

27. Gulf sight OILER
An “oiler” is an oil tanker, an ocean-going vessel used to transport crude oil.

28. ’60s Navy project SEALAB
SEALAB I, II and II were man-made habitats built by the US Navy designed to advance the technology needed for humans to live and work underwater for extended periods. SEALAB I was lowered to a depth of just under 200 feet off the coast of Bermuda in 1964. Four divers stayed in SEALAB for 11 days, before the experiment was halted due to the approach of a tropical storm.

32. Riga native LETT
Latvia is one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics. People from Latvia are called Letts.

Riga is the capital city of Latvia. The historical center of Riga is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, declared as such because of the city’s magnificent examples of Art Nouveau architecture.

34. Liability-limiting order STOP-LOSS
A stop (also “stop-loss”) order is an order to buy or sell a stock once it reaches a specific price. When that “stop price” is reached, the stop order becomes a market order and the sale or purchase is made.

36. Cheater’s tool CRIB
A crib is a plagiarism, most commonly the copying of an answer in an examination.

38. “J’accuse” writer ZOLA
The most famous work of French writer Émile Zola is his 1898 open letter “J’Accuse!” written to then French president Félix Faure. The letter was published on the front page of a leading Paris newspaper, and accused the government of anti-Semitism in its handling of the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus was a Jewish military officer in the French army, falsely accused and convicted of spying for Germany. Even after the error was discovered, the government refused to back down and let Dreyfus rot away on Devil’s Island rather than admit to the mistake. It wasn’t until 1906, 12 years after the wrongful conviction, that Dreyfus was freed and reinstated, largely due to the advocacy of Emile Zola.

39. Ios and Naxos are in them CYCLADES
The Cyclades are a group of islands in the Aegean Sea lying southeast of the Greek mainland. There are about 200 islands in the group, almost all of which are the peaks of a submerged mountain range.

43. Fast ballroom dances MAMBOS
The form of music and dance known as mambo developed in Cuba. “Mambo” means “conversation with the gods” in Kikongo, a language spoken by slaves taken to Cuba from Central Africa.

49. Home of the 3M Company ST PAUL
The company that is now called 3M was founded as a mining venture in 1902, and used to be known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (hence the name “3M”).

50. “SportsCenter” brief RECAP
“SportsCenter” is the flagship program of the ESPN television network, and has been on the air since 1979. Original versions of “SportsCenter” appear on multiple times during the day, so that there have been over 50,000 episodes broadcast to date, more than any other show on US television.

52. USSR successor CIS
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a loose association of countries that were former soviet republics. The CIS was formed in 1991 by Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, with six other states joining the alliance later.

55. Santa __ CLARA
The Santa Clara Valley, just a few miles from me at the south of San Francisco Bay, is better known as “Silicon Valley”. The term “Silicon Valley” dates back to 1971 when it was apparently first used in a weekly trade newspaper called “Electronic News” in articles written by journalist Don Hoefler.

56. 7, for N AT NO
The atomic number (at. no.) of nitrogen (N) is 7.

64. Holy mlle. STE
“Sainte” (ste.) is French for “saint”, when referring to a female.

Señorita (Srta.) is Spanish, and mademoiselle (Mlle.), is French for “Miss”.

65. “Mission: Impossible” actor PETER GRAVES
The actor Peter Graves was best known on television for playing Jim Phelps, the lead role on “Mission Impossible”. Graves most notable movie role was probably the captain of the aircraft in the 1980 comedy “Airplane!”. “Graves” was a stage name, and he was born Peter Aurness. Peter was the younger brother of actor James Arness who played Marshal Matt Dillon in “Gunsmoke” for twenty years.

We all remember Jim Phelps (played by Peter Graves), the leader of the Impossible Missions Force team in the great television series ”Mission Impossible”. However, in season one the team was led by a Dan Briggs (played by Steven Hill). Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin wrote the very, very recognizable theme music for the show (and indeed the themes for “The Man from U.N.C.L.E”, “Mannix” and “Starsky and Hutch” among others).

66. Desperate letters SOS
The combination of three dots – three dashes – three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots – pause – three dashes – pause – three dots), although in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so SOS is in effect only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are also mnemonics, introduced after the “SOS” signal was adopted.

Down
1. “Salome” composer STRAUSS
Richard Strauss’s opera “Salome” was based on the play of the same name by Oscar Wilde. The opera created quite a fuss in its early performances due to its erotic “Dance of the Seven Veils”.

2. __ hut QUONSET
Quonset huts are prefabricated galvanized steel structures, semicircular in cross section. The Quonset hut design is based on the British Nissen hut that was used during WWI. The hut takes its name from Quonset Point near Davisville, Rhode Island. It was there that the first Quonset huts were manufactured in 1941.

3. First FIFA World Cup winner URUGUAY
Uruguay won the soccer gold medals at both the 1924 and 1928 Olympic tournaments. When Jules Rimet, the president of soccer’s international governing body decided to start an international tournament outside of the Olympics, it was decided to give Uruguay the honor of hosting the first competition, in 1930. Sure enough, Uruguay emerged victorious as the first World Cup winners.

4. Inning trio? ENS
There is a trio of letters N in the word “inning”.

5. CPR provider EMT
Emergency medical technician (EMT)

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has for decades involved the simultaneous compression of the chest to pump blood using the heart, and artificial respiration by blowing air into the lungs. Nowadays emergency services are placing more emphasis on heart compressions, and less on artificial respiration.

9. Longtime college football coach who is now an ESPN analyst LOU HOLTZ
Lou Holtz is a retired football coach. Holtz moved around a lot, and is the only college football coach to have led six different schools to bowl games.

10. Bermuda hrs. AST
Atlantic Standard Time (AST) is four hours behind Greenwich Mean Time and one hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time. The list of locations that use AST includes Puerto Rico and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory that is located off the east coast of the US. It is named for the Spaniard Juan de Bermúdez who in 1503 become the first European to discover the archipelago. Bermuda is the oldest remaining British Overseas Territory (since Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949). It is also the most populous British Overseas Territory (since Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997).

12. First spacecraft to orbit Jupiter GALILEO
The unmanned NASA spacecraft called Galileo was launched from the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 1989, with the mission to explore the planet Jupiter and its moons. Galileo arrived at Jupiter over 6 years later, in December 1995, and became the first spacecraft to orbit the planet. Galileo’s mission was terminated in 2003 when NASA deliberately sent the orbiter into the planet’s atmosphere causing it to burn up and hence eliminating the possibility that Jupiter or its moons might be contaminated by any bacteria from Earth.

25. Preminger noir classic LAURA
“Laura” is a 1944 film noir directed by Otto Preminger, starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews. The film’s screenplay is based on a novel of the same name by Vera Caspary, first published in 1943. “Laura” is ranked highly in most critics’ list of favorite movies.

Otto Preminger was noted for his films that pushed the envelope in terms of subject matter, at least in the fifties and sixties. Great examples would be 1955’s “The Man with the Golden Arm” that dealt with drug addiction, 1959’s “Anatomy of a Murder” that dealt with rape, and 1962’s “Advise and Consent” that dealt with homosexuality. If you’ve seen these films, you’ll have noticed that the references are somewhat indirect and disguised, in order to get past the censors.

31. They have shuttles and treadles LOOMS
When weaving with a loom, a shuttle is a tool that carries the thread across the weft yarn, back and forth so that the fabric “grows”.

A “treadle” is a foot pedal that is used to create motion in a machine such as a loom or a potter’s wheel.

35. Montana motto word PLATA
“Oro y Plata” means “gold and silver”, and is the state motto of Montana. The motto was written in Spanish, solely because “it had a nice ring to it”.

37. Singing style in Rossini operas BEL CANTO
“Bel canto” is a term used in Italian opera, the literal translation of which is “beautiful singing”. The term specifically describes a style of singing that emphasises beauty of tone over dramatic power.

Gioachino Rossini was a prolific and very successful composer from Pesaro, Italy. During his lifetime, Rossini was lauded as the most successful composer of operas in history. His best known opera today is probably “The Barber of Seville”. His best known piece of music is probably the finale of the overture from his opera “William Tell”.

41. Jewel boxes CD CASES
A CD case is also known as a jewel box, and I am not sure why …

42. In love SMITTEN
“Smitan” is an Old English word meaning “to hit, strike”. Since the 1660s we’ve been describing someone who is “inspired with love”, or struck by Cupid’s arrow perhaps, as being “smitten”.

44. Filo pastry dessert BAKLAVA
Baklava is a very sweet and rich (and delicious) dessert pastry made from layers of filo dough filled with nuts and sweetened with honey or syrup. The name “baklava” comes from the Ottoman Turkish name for the pastry.

51. Argentine grassland PAMPA
The Pampas are fertile lowlands covering a large part of Argentina, Uruguay and some of Brazil. “Pampa” is a Quechua word meaning “plain”.

57. First name in Russian gymnastics OLGA
Olga Korbut is from modern-day Belarus, but was born during the days of the Soviet Union. Korbut competed for the USSR team in the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games. She was 17 when she appeared in the 1972 Munich Games, and had been training in a sports school since she was 8-years-old. The world fell in love with her as she was a very emotional young lady, readily expressing joy and disappointment, something that we weren’t used to seeing in athletes from behind the Iron Curtain. Korbut immigrated to the US in 1991 and now lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

62. Lexington Ave. line IRT
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the original private operator of the New York Subway when it opened in 1904. The city took over ownership of the system in 1940, but the lines originally operated by the IRT are still known by the IRT moniker.

Lexington Avenue in New York City is famous from many things, but my favorite fact is that it was the site of the first ever arrest for speeding in the city. In 1899 a police officer on a bicycle caught up with a cabdriver who was tearing down Lexington Avenue at the breakneck speed of 12mph …

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Strategy rarely involving a power hitter SQUEEZE PLAY
12. Class fig. GPA
15. 1959 Fabian hit TURN ME LOOSE
16. Art of MGM? ARS
17. Oil field workers ROUSTABOUTS
18. 1909 ballet “__ Sylphides” LES
19. Portuguese is its official lang. ANG
20. Scotland’s __ Awe LOCH
21. Static, e.g. NOISE
23. Not surprising USUAL
26. Personal question? WHO?
27. Gulf sight OILER
28. ’60s Navy project SEALAB
30. Sharp turn ELL
32. Riga native LETT
33. Touch screen accessory STYLUS
34. Liability-limiting order STOP-LOSS
36. Cheater’s tool CRIB
38. “J’accuse” writer ZOLA
39. Ios and Naxos are in them CYCLADES
43. Fast ballroom dances MAMBOS
47. Second AIDE
48. American __ ELM
49. Home of the 3M Company ST PAUL
50. “SportsCenter” brief RECAP
52. USSR successor CIS
54. Extend an invitation for ASK TO
55. Santa __ CLARA
56. 7, for N AT NO
58. Latin is often heard in it LAW
59. Pitches ADS
60. Vision MENTAL IMAGE
64. Holy mlle. STE
65. “Mission: Impossible” actor PETER GRAVES
66. Desperate letters SOS
67. “It’s about time they all left!” ALONE AT LAST!

Down
1. “Salome” composer STRAUSS
2. __ hut QUONSET
3. First FIFA World Cup winner URUGUAY
4. Inning trio? ENS
5. CPR provider EMT
6. Fire ZEAL
7. Pasta shape ELBOW
8. Hounds POOCHES
9. Longtime college football coach who is now an ESPN analyst LOU HOLTZ
10. Bermuda hrs. AST
11. Offering only two choices YES/NO
12. First spacecraft to orbit Jupiter GALILEO
13. Radio buttons PRESETS
14. Claims ASSERTS
22. Light sources OIL LAMPS
24. Safety announcement ALL CLEAR
25. Preminger noir classic LAURA
29. Surprise hit, maybe B-SIDE
31. They have shuttles and treadles LOOMS
35. Montana motto word PLATA
37. Singing style in Rossini operas BEL CANTO
39. Lifeless form CARCASS
40. Accept YIELD TO
41. Jewel boxes CD CASES
42. In love SMITTEN
44. Filo pastry dessert BAKLAVA
45. Storm consequences OUTAGES
46. Last to finish SLOWEST
51. Argentine grassland PAMPA
53. Bag SNARE
57. First name in Russian gymnastics OLGA
61. Sushi choice EEL
62. Lexington Ave. line IRT
63. Practice leader? MAL-

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