LA Times Crossword Answers 15 Jul 14, Tuesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: C.W. Stewart
THEME: Animal Things … each of today’s themed answers is a common phrase that starts with a type of animal. The clue refers not to the accepted meaning of the phrase, but to a “punny” meaning focused on the animal:

17A. Store where Yogi shops? BEAR MARKET
27A. Hangout for Mickey? MOUSEPAD
44A. Language that Porky studies? PIG LATIN
57A. Corn for Bugs? RABBIT EARS
11D. Trash in Sylvester’s room? CAT LITTER
34D. Ping-Pong tool for Goofy? DOG PADDLE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 30s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Unwanted email SPAM
Apparently the term “SPAM”, used for unwanted email, is taken from a “Monty Python” sketch. In the sketch (which I’ve seen) the dialog is taken over by the word SPAM, a play on the glut of canned meat in the markets of Britain after WWII. So “SPAM” is used for the glut of emails that takes over online communication. I can just imagine nerdy Internet types (like me) adopting something from a “Monty Python” sketch to describe an online phenomenon …

5. “Star Trek” genre SCI-FI
When Gene Roddenberry first proposed the science fiction series that became “Star Trek”, he marketed it as “Wagon Train to the Stars”, a pioneer-style Western in outer space. In fact his idea was to produce something more like “Gulliver’s Travels”, as he intended to write episodes that were adventure stories on one level, but morality tales on another. Personally I think that he best achieved this model with the spin-off series “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. If you watch individual episodes you will see thinly disguised treatments of moral issues such as racism, homosexuality, genocide etc. For my money, “The Next Generation” is the best of the whole franchise …

14. Actress Jessica ALBA
Actress Jessica Alba got her big break when she was cast in the Fox science fiction show “Dark Angel”. Alba had a tough life growing up as she spent a lot of time in hospital and so found it difficult to develop friendships. As a youngster she twice had a collapsed lung, frequently caught pneumonia, suffered from asthma, had a ruptured appendix and a tonsillar cyst. On top of all that she acknowledges that she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child. It seems that she has really turned her life around …

17. Store where Yogi shops? BEAR MARKET
The terms “bull” and “bear” markets come from the way in which each animal attacks. A bull thrusts his horns upwards (an “up” market), whereas a bear swipes with his paws downward (a “down” market).

The cartoon character Yogi Bear made his debut for Hanna-Barbera in 1958 on “The Huckleberry Hound Show” before he was given his own series. Do you remember that collar that Yogi wore around his neck? That was a little trick from the animators. By using the collar, for many frames all they had to do was redraw everything from the collar up, saving them lots and lots of time.

19. Mediterranean volcano ETNA
Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy. Mt Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius.

20. Resin used in varnish LAC
Lac is a resin secreted by some insects. The insects leave the resin coating branches of trees. The tree branches can be harvested and processed to make what’s called seedlac which can be used in varnish, especially varnish that is used to finish violins.

24. Some Alaska natives ESKIMOS
Although still used in the US, the term “Eskimo” tends to be avoided in Canada and Greenland as there it is considered pejorative.

26. Funny Cheri OTERI
Cheri Oteri was the SNL cast member who regularly appeared with Will Farrell in the skit featuring a pair of Spartan cheerleaders.

27. Hangout for Mickey? MOUSEPAD
Walt Disney’s iconic cartoon character Mickey Mouse, was introduced to the public in 1928 in the cartoon “Steamboat Willie”. Mickey was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978, the first cartoon character to be so honored. Walt Disney has some nice words to say in Disneyland in 1954:

I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.

29. Bygone airline letters TWA
Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a big carrier in the US, but was perhaps even more recognized for its extensive presence in Europe and the Middle East. For many years, especially after the collapse of Pan-Am, TWA was considered the unofficial flag carrier for the US. The company started in 1930, the product of a forced merger of Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express. The Transcontinental and Western Air that resulted (the original meaning of the acronym TWA) was what the Postmaster General wanted, a bigger airline to which the Postal Service could award airmail contracts.

38. Degree for many a prof PHD
PhD is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”.

43. Sound booster AMP
An electric guitar, for example, needs an amplifier (amp) to take the weak signal created by the vibration of the strings and turn it into a signal powerful enough for a loudspeaker.

44. Language that Porky studies? PIG LATIN
Pig Latin is in effect a game. One takes the first consonant or consonant cluster of an English word and moves it to the end of the word, and then adds the letters “ay”. So the Pig Latin for the word “nix” is “ix-n-ay” … ixnay, and for “scram” is “am-scr-ay”

Porky Pig was the first of the characters created by Warner Bros. to become a hit with audiences. Porky Pig is the guy with the line at the end of each cartoon, “Th-th-th-that’s all folks!” If you don’t mind a little adult language, there’s a very funny 11-second Porky Pig clip that the studio released on a blooper reel in 1938. Porky Pig stutters out “Son of g-g-gun”, only he doesn’t say “gun” …

54. Works on the road TARS
“Tarmac” and “macadam” are short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call Tarmac.

57. Corn for Bugs? RABBIT EARS
Remember the television antenna called a “rabbit ears”? I don’t recall being told this when I was younger, but to get the best reception the length of the “ears” needs to be set at about one half of the wavelength of the signal of the target channel. If only I had known …

Bugs Bunny first said “What’s up, Doc?” in the 1940 cartoon short “A Wild Hare”, addressing the hunter Elmer Fudd.

62. Party wheel BRIE
Brie is a soft cheese, named after the French region from which it originated. Brie is similar to the equally famous (and delicious) camembert.

64. Choreographer Cunningham MERCE
Merce Cunningham was a dancer and choreographer associated with the genre of American modern dance. Cunningham often collaborated with the celebrated composer John Cage. Cunningham and Cage were also life partners.

Down
1. Luxurious fur SABLE
Sables are small mammals about two feet long, found right across northern Europe and northern Asia. The sable’s pelt is highly prized in the fur trade. Sable is unique among furs in that it feels smooth no matter which direction it is stroked.

11. Trash in Sylvester’s room? CAT LITTER
Sylvester J, Pussycat was also known as Puddy Tat, and was a character who appeared in “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” cartoons. Sylvester was the cat who was often trying to get the better of Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales and Hippety Hopper.

26. With 40-Across, place to see views OP-ED
(40. See 26-Down PAGE)
Op-ed is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

28. Lucy’s sidekick ETHEL
In the hit television show “I Love Lucy”, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. The Ricardos’ best friends were also their landlords, Fred and Ethel Mertz. The Mertz’s were played by William Frawley and Vivian Vance.

30. Target of Dr. Scholl’s Freeze Away WART
William Scholl worked part time as a cobbler and then in a shoe retailer in Chicago. Noting that many people had similar foot problems he went to night school and qualified as a podiatrist in 1904. Soon after he started his own company making footcare products, giving us the brand name Dr. Scholl’s.

32. Spanish hors d’oeuvre TAPA
“Tapa” is the Spanish word for “lid”, and there is no clear rationale for why this word came to be used for an appetizer. There are lots of explanations cited, all of which seem to involve the temporary covering of one’s glass of wine with a plate or item of food to either preserve the wine or give one extra space at the table.

33. Muslim leader IMAM
An imam is a Muslim leader, often the person in charge of a mosque or perhaps a Muslim community.

34. Ping-Pong tool for Goofy? DOG PADDLE
The Disney character Goofy first appeared as Dippy Dawg in 1932. Goofy became famous for his “How to …” series of cartoons in the 1940s which dealt with everything from snow skiing to sleeping, and from football to riding a horse. Goofy’s last theatrical appearance was in a 2007 work called “How to Hook Up Your Home Theater”.

Ping-pong is called table tennis in the UK, where the sport originated in the 1880s. Table tennis started as an after-dinner activity among the elite, and was called “wiff-waff”. To play the game, books were stacked in the center of a table as a “net”, two more books served as “”rackets” and the ball used was actually a golf ball. The game evolved over time with the rackets being upgraded to the lids of cigar boxes and the ball becoming a champagne cork (how snooty is that?). Eventually the game was produced commercially, and the sound of the ball hitting the racket was deemed to be a “ping” and a “pong”, giving the sport its alternative name.

49. Video game pioneer 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.

50. Problem for Pauline PERIL
“The Perils of Pauline” is a weekly silent film serial that was made in 1914. There were twenty original episodes, with actress Pearl White playing the title character. Pauline was placed in a perilous situation in each episode, but was always rescued or managed to escape. There’s a widely-held belief that one of Pauline’s predicament was being tied to railroad tracks with a locomotive bearing down on her. But, this never happened, at least not to Pauline.

51. Prop for a painter EASEL
The word “easel” comes from an old Dutch word meaning “donkey” would you believe? The idea is that an easel carries its load (an oil painting, say) just as a donkey would carry its load.

54. Lift up the slope T-BAR
A T-bar is a type of ski lift in which the skiers are pulled up the hill in pairs, with each pair standing (not sitting!) either side of T-shaped metal bar. The bar is placed behind the thighs, pulling along the skiers as they remain standing on their skis (hopefully!). There’s also a J-bar, a similar device, but with each J-shaped bar used by one skier at a time.

58. “__ Maria” AVE
“Ave Maria” (“Hail Mary” in English) is the prayer at the core of the Roman Catholic Rosary, which itself is a set of prayers asking for the assistance of the Virgin Mary. Much of the text of the “Hail Mary” comes from the Gospel of Luke.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Unwanted email SPAM
5. “Star Trek” genre SCI-FI
10. Con job SCAM
14. Actress Jessica ALBA
15. Falcon’s weapon TALON
16. It’s filled and folded TACO
17. Store where Yogi shops? BEAR MARKET
19. Mediterranean volcano ETNA
20. Resin used in varnish LAC
21. Visual aids EYES
22. It’s folded and filled OMELET
24. Some Alaska natives ESKIMOS
26. Funny Cheri OTERI
27. Hangout for Mickey? MOUSEPAD
29. Bygone airline letters TWA
32. Small piece of gossip TIDBIT
35. Abbr. on a business card TEL
36. Big name STAR
37. French love AMOUR
38. Degree for many a prof PHD
39. At the ready ALERT
40. See 26-Down PAGE
41. Poor grade DEE
42. Braininess SMARTS
43. Sound booster AMP
44. Language that Porky studies? PIG LATIN
46. Precincts AREAS
48. Bureaucratic tangle RED TAPE
52. Trying to avoid detection HIDING
54. Works on the road TARS
55. Afternoon party TEA
56. Track figures ODDS
57. Corn for Bugs? RABBIT EARS
60. __ Decor: home fashion mag ELLE
61. Be useful to AVAIL
62. Party wheel BRIE
63. Understands SEES
64. Choreographer Cunningham MERCE
65. Something to settle up BILL

Down
1. Luxurious fur SABLE
2. Answers in court PLEAS
3. Startling way to be taken ABACK
4. Scuff or scratch MAR
5. Sign on a moping teen’s door STAY OUT!
6. Loving touch CARESS
7. Varieties ILKS
8. One opposed FOE
9. All together IN TOTAL
10. Take the wheel STEER
11. Trash in Sylvester’s room? CAT LITTER
12. Complexion woe ACNE
13. Castle security MOAT
18. Personal record MEMOIR
23. __ school MED
25. Suffuse, as with color IMBUE
26. With 40-Across, place to see views OP-ED
28. Lucy’s sidekick ETHEL
30. Target of Dr. Scholl’s Freeze Away WART
31. Partner of letters ARTS
32. Spanish hors d’oeuvre TAPA
33. Muslim leader IMAM
34. Ping-Pong tool for Goofy? DOG PADDLE
36. Lean one way or another SLANT
38. Places to hang hats PEGS
39. Surrounded by AMIDST
41. How-to book feature DIAGRAM
42. More than just clean STERILE
44. Farm enclosure PEN
45. Middle East language ARABIC
47. Goes up RISES
49. Video game pioneer ATARI
50. Problem for Pauline PERIL
51. Prop for a painter EASEL
52. Goes after weeds HOES
53. Like some chatter IDLE
54. Lift up the slope T-BAR
58. “__ Maria” AVE
59. Outward flow EBB

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