LA Times Crossword Answers 19 Sep 14, Friday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Jacob Stulberg
THEME: Arr Go … today’s puzzle includes a riddle, and the answer to that riddle:

17A. Start of a riddle WHAT’S
30A. Riddle, part two A PIRATE’S
49A. Riddle, part three FAVORITE
64A. End of the riddle MOVIE

7D. Answer to the riddle ARRRRRRRRRRRRGO

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 8m 57s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Caesar in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” for one CHIMP
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is a 2011 “reboot” of the highly successful “Planet of the Apes” series of films that was launched in 1968.

The whole “Planet of the Apes” franchise was based on a French novel by Pierre Boulle called “La Planète des singes”. The book was published in English as “Monkey Planet” but was republished as “Planet of the Apes” when Hollywood had made its choice for a title.

15. Bold alternative ERA
Bold and Era are laundry detergents.

18. “Shirt Front and Fork” artist ARP
Hans Arp was a French artist renowned for his work with torn and pasted paper, although that wasn’t the only medium he used. Arp was the son of a French mother and German father and spoke both languages fluently. When he was speaking German he gave his name as Hans Arp, but when speaking French he called himself Jean Arp. Both “Hans” and “Jean” translate into English as “John”. In WWI Arp moved to Switzerland to avoid being called up to fight, taking advantage of Swiss neutrality. Eventually he was told to report to the German Consulate and fill out paperwork for the draft. In order to get out of fighting, Arp messed up the paperwork by writing the date in every blank space on the forms. Then he took off all of his clothes and walked with his papers over to the officials in charge. He was sent home …

23. “__ Shorty”: Elmore Leonard novel GET
Elmore Leonard used to write a lot of westerns in the fifties and moved onto crime and suspense novels later in his career. A lot of Leonard’s books have made it to the big screen, including “Get Shorty” and “Mr Majestyk”.

29. Rm. coolers ACS
Air conditioning units (ACs) are room (rm.) coolers.

34. Kazakhstan, once: Abbr. SSR
The Republic of Kazakhstan in Central Asia is the world’s largest landlocked country. Kazakhstan was the last of the former Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) to declare itself independent from Russia.

39. Chevrolet SUV TAHOE
The Chevrolet Tahoe is basically the same design as the GMC Yukon, both cars being sports utility vehicles. The Tahoe is rated at 15 mpg for city driving, but there is a hybrid version which is rated at a whopping 21 mpg …

46. KOA visitors RVS
Recreational vehicle (RV)

Kampgrounds of America (KOA) was founded in 1962 by Montana businessman Dave Drum, who opened up his first property along the Yellowstone River. His strategy was to offer a rich package of services including hot showers, restrooms and a store, which he hoped would attract people used to camping in the rough. The original campground was an immediate hit and Drum took on two partners and sold franchises all over the country. There are about 500 KOA sites today.

53. Monkey wrench wielder? SABOTEUR
There is a story that disgruntled textile workers would kick their wooden shoes, called sabots, into the looms in order to disable them so that they didn’t have to work. This act of vandalism was named for the shoe, an act of … sabotage.

The idiom “to throw a monkey wrench into the works” means “to sabotage”.

59. Coat closet locale, often ENTRYWAY
In old French a “clos” was an enclosure, with the diminutive form “closet” describing a small enclosure or private room. Over time this evolved into our modern usage, to describe a cabinet or cupboard.

63. Sellout sign, briefly SRO
Standing room only (SRO)

68. Lagoon border ATOLL
An atoll is a coral island that is shaped in a ring and enclosing a lagoon. There is still some debate as to how an atoll forms, but a theory proposed by Charles Darwin while on his famous voyage aboard HMS Beagle still holds sway. Basically an atoll was once a volcanic island that had subsided and fallen into the sea. The coastline of the island is home to coral growth which persists even as the island continues to subside internal to the circling coral reef.

A lagoon is a shallow body of water, usually separated from the sea by sandbar or reef. The term comes from the Italian “laguna”, the word for a pond or lake. The original “laguna” is the “Laguna Veneta”, the enclosed bay in the Adriatic Sea on which Venice is located. In 1769, Captain Cook was the first to apply the word “lagoon” to the body of water inside a South Seas atoll.

69. Goad, with “on” EGG
The verb “edge” has been used to mean to incite, to urge on, from the 16th century. Somewhere along the way “edge” was mistakenly replaced with “egg”, giving us our term “to egg on” meaning “to goad”.

71. Like a string bean LANKY
Someone described as “lanky” is awkwardly tall and thin. Such a person might also be referred to colloquially as a “string bean”.

Down
1. Farm field cry CAW
A “caw” is the harsh cry of a crow.

3. Lyricist Gershwin IRA
Ira Gershwin was the lyricist who worked with his brother George to create such American classics as the songs “I Got Rhythm” and “Someone to Watch Over Me”, as well as the opera “Porgy and Bess”. After George Gershwin died, Ira continued to create great music, working with the likes of Jerome Kern and Kurt Weill.

4. British subject? MATHS
Here’s another term that catches me out all the time, having done my schooling on the other side of the Atlantic. The term “mathematics” is shorted to “math” in the US, but to “maths” in the UK and Ireland.

5. Currency replaced by the euro PESETA
The peseta is the former currency of Spain, replaced by the euro in 2002.

7. Answer to the riddle ARRRRRRRRRRRRGO
“Argo” is a 2012 movie that is based on the true story of the rescue of six diplomats hiding out during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The film was directed by and stars Ben Affleck and is produced by Grant Heslov and George Clooney, the same pair who produced the excellent “Good Night, and Good Luck”. I saw “Argo” and recommend it highly, although I found the scenes of religious fervor to be pretty frightening …

9. Headlight setting HIGH BEAM
The high beam setting on a car’s headlights directs a bright light to the front of the vehicle. The low beam setting causes the light to “dip” towards the side of the road to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. This causes a few problems for some vacationing drivers in Europe. I remember taking my car over to France (where cars drive on the right) from Ireland (where we drive on the left) many moons ago. By law, I had to place adhesive blackout strips over the headlamps so that the lights did not dazzle oncoming traffic.

10. “Let us part, __ the season of passion forget us”: Yeats ERE
“The Falling of the Leaves” is a poem by Irish poet William Butler Yeats:

Autumn is over the long leaves that love us,
And over the mice in the barley sheaves;
Yellow the leaves of the rowan above us,
And yellow the wet wild-strawberry leaves.
The hour of the waning of love has beset us,
And weary and worn are our sad souls now;
Let us part, ere the season of passion forget us,
With a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.

Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 for “inspired poetry” that gave “expression to a whole nation”. Yeats was Ireland’s first Nobel laureate.

12. River mammal OTTER
The fur of the sea otter is exceptionally thick. It is in fact the densest fur in the whole animal kingdom.

21. Egyptian snakes ASPS
The venomous snake called an asp was a symbol of royalty in Ancient Egypt.

22. Actor Green of “Robot Chicken” SETH
Seth Green is an actor and comedian best-known by many as creator and voice actor on the animated television series “Robot Chicken”. I know him best for playing “Napster” in the 2005 film “The Italian Job”.

25. Fanfare ECLAT
“Éclat” can mean a brilliant show of success, or the applause or accolade that one receives. The word derives from the French “éclater” meaning “to splinter, burst out”.

26. Tokyo-based brewery ASAHI
Asahi is a beer, and the name of the brewery that produces it. “Asahi” is Japanese for “morning sun”. Asahi introduced a “dry beer” in 1987, igniting a craze that rocketed the brewery to the number one spot in terms of beer production in Japan, with Sapporo close behind.

28. Bar, in law ESTOP
The term “estop” means to block or stop by using some legal device. The word “estop” comes from Old French, in which “estopper” means “to stop up” or “to impede”.

31. Suffix with Mao -ISM
The Maoist philosophy holds that the agrarian worker, as opposed to the more general working class, is the driving force in transforming from a capitalist society into a socialist society.

33. Smashing, at the box office BOFFO
“Boffo” is show biz slang for “very successful”, a term that dates back to the early sixties.

The term “box office” may date back to Shakespearean times. In those days long past, patrons would deposit fees for seeing theater performances in boxes. The full boxes would be collected and placed in an office called, imaginatively enough, the “box office”.

36. Singer with the Mel-Tones TORME
Mel Tormé was a jazz singer, with a quality of voice that earned him the nickname “The Velvet Fog”. Tormé also wrote a few books, and did a lot of acting. He was the co-author of the Christmas classic known as “The Christmas Song”, which starts out with the line “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire …”

Crooner Mel Tormé fronted a vocal quintet in the 1940s called Mel Tormé and His Mel-Tones. Tormé set up the group as Frank Sinatra had been having success singing with the Hoboken Four as well as with the Pied Pipers.

42. Louis __, eponym of the Kentucky city XVI
Louis XVI ruled France from 1774 to 1792. It was Louis XVI who was married to Marie Antoinette, and who died at the guillotine during the French Revolution.

The city of Louisville, Kentucky was a chartered as a town in 1780 and was named in honor of King Louis XVI of France as French soldiers were aiding Americans in the Revolutionary War that was raging at that time.

51. Tooth covering ENAMEL
Tooth enamel covers the crowns of our teeth. Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in the human body. It is composed of 96% crystalline calcium phosphate.

54. Cardiologist’s concern AORTA
The aorta originates in the heart and extends down into the abdomen. It is the largest artery in the body.

55. Lakers coach __ Scott BYRON
Byron Scott is a former NBA player and the current head coach of the LA Lakers. Scott played for Lakers from 1983 to 1993, and again from 1996 to 1997.

57. Nearsighted one MYOPE
A myope is someone suffering from myopia, short-sightedness.

60. Activity on a mat YOGA
In the West we tend to think of yoga as a physical discipline, a means of exercise that uses specific poses to stretch and strengthen muscles. While it is true that the ancient Indian practice of yoga does involve such physical discipline, the corporeal aspect of the practice plays a relatively small part in the whole philosophy. Other major components are meditation, ethical behavior, breathing and contemplation.

62. Image on the Michigan state flag ELK
The Michigan state flag features the state’s coat-of-arms on a blue background. The coat-of-arms features a shield supported by an elk on one side and a moose on the other.

67. Small opening? ESS
The word “small” opens with the letter S (ess).

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Caesar in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” for one CHIMP
6. Road __ MAP
9. Long-legged wader HERON
14. Halos AURAE
15. Bold alternative ERA
16. Really ticked IRATE
17. Start of a riddle WHAT’S
18. “Shirt Front and Fork” artist ARP
19. Well-mannered fellows GENTS
20. Summertime woe HEAT RASH
23. “__ Shorty”: Elmore Leonard novel GET
24. Sumptuous meals FEASTS
27. Some microbrews RYE BEERS
29. Rm. coolers ACS
30. Riddle, part two A PIRATE’S
32. Big piece SLAB
34. Kazakhstan, once: Abbr. SSR
35. Polite gesture HAT TIP
39. Chevrolet SUV TAHOE
41. Mystery guest moniker MR X
43. Highs and lows, perhaps MOODS
44. Suppress STIFLE
46. KOA visitors RVS
48. Mice, to owls PREY
49. Riddle, part three FAVORITE
52. Buddy MAC
53. Monkey wrench wielder? SABOTEUR
56. Catch in a web ENMESH
58. Many a lap dog TOY
59. Coat closet locale, often ENTRYWAY
61. Dropped the ball ERRED
63. Sellout sign, briefly SRO
64. End of the riddle MOVIE
68. Lagoon border ATOLL
69. Goad, with “on” EGG
70. Heroic stories EPICS
71. Like a string bean LANKY
72. Burnt __ crisp TO A
73. Unauthorized disclosures LEAKS

Down
1. Farm field cry CAW
2. “That’s a surprise” HUH
3. Lyricist Gershwin IRA
4. British subject? MATHS
5. Currency replaced by the euro PESETA
6. Beef, e.g. MEAT
7. Answer to the riddle ARRRRRRRRRRRRGO
8. Melonlike fruit PAPAYA
9. Headlight setting HIGH BEAM
10. “Let us part, __ the season of passion forget us”: Yeats ERE
11. Singer’s asset RANGE
12. River mammal OTTER
13. Makes a home NESTS
21. Egyptian snakes ASPS
22. Actor Green of “Robot Chicken” SETH
24. Doesn’t take anything in FASTS
25. Fanfare ECLAT
26. Tokyo-based brewery ASAHI
28. Bar, in law ESTOP
31. Suffix with Mao -ISM
33. Smashing, at the box office BOFFO
36. Singer with the Mel-Tones TORME
37. A muse may inspire them IDEAS
38. “Fooled you!” PSYCH!
40. With joy ELATEDLY
42. Louis __, eponym of the Kentucky city XVI
45. All square EVEN
47. Lose sleep (over) STEW
50. Square one OUTSET
51. Tooth covering ENAMEL
53. Pinch STEAL
54. Cardiologist’s concern AORTA
55. Lakers coach __ Scott BYRON
57. Nearsighted one MYOPE
60. Activity on a mat YOGA
62. Image on the Michigan state flag ELK
65. Through VIA
66. “Gross!” ICK!
67. Small opening? ESS

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