LA Times Crossword Answers 17 Sep 14, Wednesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. GUM rival ORAL-B
The Oral-B toothbrush was introduced to the world in 1950, designed by a California periodontist. The first “model” was the Oral-B 60, a name given to reflect the 60 tufts in the brush. In 1969, the Oral-B was the first toothbrush to get to the moon as it was the toothbrush of choice for the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

GUM is a brand of oral care products produced by the Japanese company Sunstar. GUM is an acronym standing for “Gentle Uletic Massage”. “Uletic” is an adjective meaning “relating to the gums”.

10. Conference with UVA and UNC ACC
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

The University of Virginia (UVA) was founded by Thomas Jefferson, who sat on the original Board of Visitors alongside former US Presidents James Madison and James Monroe. In fact, the original UVA campus was built on land that was once a farm belonging to President Monroe.

The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill started enrolling students way back in 1795, making it the oldest public university in the country (the first to enrol students).

13. Guthrie at Woodstock ARLO
Arlo Guthrie is the son of Woody Guthrie. Both father and son are renowned for their singing of protest songs about social injustice. Arlo is most famous for his epic “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, a song that lasts a full 18m 34s. In the song Guthrie tells how, after being drafted, he was rejected for service in the Vietnam War based on his criminal record. He had only one incident on his public record, a Thanksgiving Day arrest for littering and being a public nuisance when he was 18-years-old.

1969’s Woodstock Music & Art Fair was held on a dairy farm located 43 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York. 400,000 young people attended, and saw 32 bands and singers perform over three days.

14. “__ Unchained”: 2012 Tarantino film DJANGO
“Django Unchained” is a Quentin Tarantino film that was released in 2012. It is the highest grossing film that Tarantino has made to date. I tend to avoid Tarantino movies as I find them to be unnecessarily violent. Apparently “Django Unchained” is one of his more violent offerings.

15. Arctic explorer John RAE
John Rae was a Scottish explorer, who took on the task of searching for the ill-fated Franklin Expedition of 1845. The Franklin Expedition was itself searching for the elusive Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific. John Rae stirred up much controversy back in England when he reported evidence of cannibalism among the ill-fated Franklin explorers.

19. Square peg, socially speaking DWEEB
Dweeb, squarepants, nerd … all are not nice terms that mean the same thing, someone excessively studious and socially inept.

22. Time for fools? APRIL
April Fool’s Day is celebrated on April 1st in the western world. In the US (and Ireland) one can make practical jokes all day long if one wants. But in the UK there is a noon deadline. Anyone pranking after midday is called an “April Fool”.

33. “Cagney and __”: ’80s cop show LACEY
On the eighties police drama “Cagney & Lacey” Christine Cagney was played by Sharon Gless. A few years after “Cagney & Lacey” ended its run, Gless married the show’s executive producer, Barney Rosenzweig.

Tyne Daly really came into the public eye playing Detective Lacey in the TV police drama “Cagney and Lacey”. More recently Daly played the mother of the title character in “Judging Amy”.

36. Fruit that can be the source of the starts of the answers to starred clues COCONUT
The coconut is the fruit of the coconut palm. The term “coconut” comes from “coco” and “nut”, with “coco” being 16th-century Spanish and Portuguese for “head”, and more specifically “grinning face”. The three holes found in the base of a coconut shell might be said to resemble a human face.

38. “No more details, please!” TMI
Too much information! (TMI)

52. “A Change Is Gonna Come” singer/songwriter Sam COOKE
Sam Cooke was a soul singer from Clarksdale, Mississippi. Cooke is considered by many to have been one of the founders of the soul genre. Cooke’s impressive list of hits includes “You Send Me”, Chain Gang” and “Twistin’ the Night Away”. Cooke was only 33 years old when he died. He was shot after a drunken brawl by a motel manager in what was deemed by the courts to be a justifiable homicide.

Sam Cooke’s 1964 song “A Change Is Gonna Come” is about the struggle that African-Americans were facing in the US in the sixties. Cooke was inspired to write the song after he and his associates were refused rooms at a “whites only” Holiday Inn motel in Shreveport, Louisiana.

54. Time to attack H-HOUR
The most famous D-Day in history was June 6, 1944, the date of the Normandy landings in WWII. The term “D-Day” is used by the military to designate the day on which a combat operations are to be launched, especially when the actual date has yet to be determined. What D stands for seems to have been lost in the mists of time although the tradition is that D just stands for “Day”. In fact, the French have a similar term, “Jour J” (Day J), with a similar meaning. We also use H-Hour to denote the hour the attack is to commence.

56. Bass brew ALE
The red triangle on the label of a bottle of Bass Ale was registered in 1875 and is UK Registered Trade Mark (TM) No: 00001, the first trade mark issued in the world.

57. *Monet work OIL PAINTING
Claude Monet painted the harbor of Le Havre in the north of France in 1872, giving it the title “Impression, Sunrise”. The painting is not a “realistic” representation of the scene in front of him, hence the name “impression”. It was this very painting that gave rise to the name of the Impressionist movement.

63. Pewter component TIN
Pewter is a relatively soft alloy that is made up mostly of tin, with some copper, antimony, bismuth and lead.

64. Sings like Rudy Vallee CROONS
Rudy Vallee was the stage name of Hubert Vallée, a singer and actor from Island Pond, Vermont. Vallee was known for his singing style, and is usually referred to as the first “crooner”. Early in his career he performed without the benefit of microphone technology and had to use a megaphone as he was perhaps the first real “pop star” and played to sell-out audiences.

65. Biblical reformer EZRA
Ezra the Scribe, also called Ezra the Priest, is the central character in the Book of Ezra in the Hebrew Bible.

Down
1. Amateur radio operator HAM
Amateur radio enthusiasts were originally called ham operators by professional telegraph operators, and the term was intended to be insulting. It came from the similar term “ham actor”, describing a person who is less than effective on the stage. But amateur operators eventually embraced the moniker and so it stuck.

3. Nice duds GLAD RAGS
“Glad rags” is a slang term for one’s best clothes.

“Duds” is an informal word for clothing, coming from the word “dudde” that was used around 1300 as the name for a cloak.

4. Start the wrong way? HOT-WIRE
One might “hot-wire” a car, start the engine without a key, especially in the act of stealing the vehicle.

5. “The Song of Hiawatha” tribe OJIBWA
The Ojibwe (also “Ojibwa”) are the second-largest of the First Nations, surpassed only by the Cree. The name “Ojibwa” is more common in Canada, whereas the alternative anglicization “Chippewa” is more common in the US.

“The Song of Hiawatha” is an epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that he penned in 1855. Longfellow based the poem on legends told to him by Native Americans. The main characters in the piece are Hiawatha and his lover Minnehaha.

10. Catherine’s home ARAGON
Aragon is one of the autonomous communities of Spain, located in the northern part of the country on the border with France.

Catherine of Aragon was the first wife of King Henry VIII. Catherine had been married to Henry’s older brother Prince Arthur, who was the heir apparent to the English throne at that time of their betrothal. Arthur died, five months after the marriage, leaving Henry as heir. Almost eight years later, Catherine married the newly crowned Henry, in 1509. Famously, Catherine bore no living sons with Henry, but they did have a daughter who was later to become Queen Mary I. By 1525, the lack of sons and an infatuation with Anne Boleyn led Henry to seek an annulment of the marriage with Catherine. Pope Clement VII’s refusal to declare the marriage invalid led to Henry splitting with Rome and establishing the Church of England.

12. People people CELEBS
There used to be a “People” page in each issue of “Time” magazine. This page was spun-off in 1974 as a publication of its own, which we now call “People” magazine.

14. Dr. with Grammys DRE
Dr. Dre is the stage name of rapper Andre Romelle Young. Dr. Dre is known for his own singing career as well as for producing records and starting the careers of others such Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent.

The first Grammy Awards Ceremony was held in 1959 and focused on recognizing outstanding achievement in the recording industry. The idea of a Grammy Award came up when recording executives were working on the Hollywood Walk of Fame project in the fifties. These executives concluded that there were many people in the recording industry deserving of accolades but who would probably never make it to the Walk of Fame. As a result, they founded the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The Academy considered naming the award the “Eddies” after Thomas Edison, but then opted for “Grammy” after Edison’s invention: the gramophone.

21. “About __”: Hugh Grant film A BOY
“About a Boy” is a 2002 film adaptation of a 1988 novel of the same name by Nick Hornby (who also wrote “High Fidelity” and “Fever Pitch”, which were also turned into successful movies). “About a Boy” stars Hugh Grant and Toni Collette, with Nicholas Hoult playing the title character. Hornby’s novel has now been adapted for the small screen, and a TV series of the same name premiered on NBC in 2014.

The English actor Hugh Grant’s full name is Hugh John Mungo Grant. Grant’s breakthrough came with his leading role in 1994’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral”. That was a fabulous performance. Sadly, I think Grant has basically been playing the same character ever since …

22. Oman locale ASIA
The Arabian Peninsula (also “Arabia”) is part of Western Asia that is located just north-east of Africa. The peninsula is bordered to the west by the Red Sea, to the northeast by the Persian Gulf, and to the southeast by the Indian Ocean. Most of the Arabian Peninsula is taken up by Saudi Arabia, but also included are Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen.

26. Eliot Ness, e.g. T-MAN
A T-man is a law-enforcement agent of the US Treasury (the “T” stands for Treasury).

Eliot Ness was the Treasury agent charged with the task of bringing down the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone. When Ness took on the job in 1930, Chicago law-enforcement agents were renowned for being corrupt, for being on the take. Ness handpicked 50 prohibition agents who he thought he could rely on, later reducing the group to a cadre of 15 and ultimately just 11 trusted men. That group of 11 earned the nickname “The Untouchables”, the agents who couldn’t be bought.

27. Pre-euro Iberian coin ESCUDO
The Portuguese escudo was the national currency prior to the introduction of the euro in 1999. “Escudo” is Portuguese for “shield”, a reference to the design on one side of the escudo coin.

The Ebro is the longest river in Spain. The river was known by the Romans as the Iber, and it is the “Iber” river that gives the “Iberian” Peninsula its name.

29. Rodeo horse BRONCO
A “bronco” (also “bronc”) is a horse that is untamed. In Mexican Spanish “bronco” is a word for “horse”, and in the original Spanish “bronco” means “rough, rude”.

34. Greek vowel ETA
Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”. Originally denoting a consonant, eta was used as a long vowel in Ancient Greek.

37. Ring-tailed scavenger, to Crockett COON
The raccoon is native to North America. In captivity, raccoons can live to over 20 years of age, but in the wild they only live two or three years. The main causes for the shorter lifespan are hunting and road traffic.

The pioneer Davy Crockett is often referred to as “King of the Wild Frontier”. Crockett was from East Tennessee. After serving in the local militia he entered politics and represented his state in the US House of Representatives from 1827 to 1831. Crockett disapproved of many of the policies of President Andrew Jackson, which led to his defeat in the 1834 election for the House. The defeat prompted Crockett to leave Tennessee for Texas. Famously, he died there in 1836 at the Battle of the Alamo.

45. Viagra alternative CIALIS
Cialis and Viagra are not just brands competing against each other, they also have differing active ingredients. Viagra is a trade name for Sildenafil citrate, and Cialis is tadalafil. Both drugs are used to treat erectile dysfunction, and more recently for treating pulmonary arterial hypertension.

46. “Full House” twins OLSENS
I know very little about the Olsen twins, but I am told that folks believe Mary-Kate and Ashley to be identical twins. They look very much alike, but are in fact fraternal twins. The sisters were cast as Michelle Tanner on the eighties sitcom “Full House”, taking turns playing the role.

55. “__ Master’s Voice” HIS
Nipper is the name of the dog that appeared in the RCA logo. Nipper was a real dog, actually from England. His owner, Francis Barraud, made a painting of Nipper listening to a gramophone. Barraud then approached several gramophone manufacturers in the hope they would be interested in using the image for advertising. Nipper’s likeness was indeed picked up, and around that time it was Barraud himself who came up with the slogan “His Master’s Voice”.

58. Nest egg item, for short IRA
Individual retirement account (IRA)

60. Mystery master POE
Edgar Allan Poe lived a life of many firsts. Poe is considered to be the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He was also the first notable American author to make his living through his writing, something that didn’t really go too well for him as he was always financially strapped. In 1849 he was found on the streets of Baltimore, delirious from either drugs or alcohol. Poe died a few days later in hospital at 39 years of age.

61. Piece corps, briefly? NRA
National Rifle Association(NRA)

A “piece” is a gun. The term has been used to describe a portable firearm from way back in the 1580s.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Expensive HIGH
5. GUM rival ORAL-B
10. Conference with UVA and UNC ACC
13. Guthrie at Woodstock ARLO
14. “__ Unchained”: 2012 Tarantino film DJANGO
15. Arctic explorer John RAE
16. *Butcher’s appliance MEAT GRINDER
18. Not just some ALL
19. Square peg, socially speaking DWEEB
20. Sharp-eyed hunter EAGLE
22. Time for fools? APRIL
24. *Prankster’s balloon WATER BOMB
28. Ride the wind SOAR
29. Lip applications BALMS
30. Persons ONES
31. Ready to be driven IN GEAR
33. “Cagney and __”: ’80s cop show LACEY
35. Newspaper filler ADS
36. Fruit that can be the source of the starts of the answers to starred clues COCONUT
38. “No more details, please!” TMI
41. “Right?!” I KNOW!
42. Ruined, as hopes DASHED
44. Picture on a screen ICON
47. Fast food package deal COMBO
49. Sock part HEEL
50. *Allowance for the cafeteria MILK MONEY
52. “A Change Is Gonna Come” singer/songwriter Sam COOKE
53. Catch on the range LASSO
54. Time to attack H-HOUR
56. Bass brew ALE
57. *Monet work OIL PAINTING
63. Pewter component TIN
64. Sings like Rudy Vallee CROONS
65. Biblical reformer EZRA
66. Hazardous curve ESS
67. More than unpopular HATED
68. Start a hand DEAL

Down
1. Amateur radio operator HAM
2. Fury IRE
3. Nice duds GLAD RAGS
4. Start the wrong way? HOT-WIRE
5. “The Song of Hiawatha” tribe OJIBWA
6. Operated RAN
7. “Your point is …?” AND …?
8. T size LGE
9. Tree-damaging insect BORER
10. Catherine’s home ARAGON
11. “I hope to hear from you” CALL ME
12. People people CELEBS
14. Dr. with Grammys DRE
17. Salon supply GEL
21. “About __”: Hugh Grant film A BOY
22. Oman locale ASIA
23. Fishing spot POND
25. “It’d be my pleasure” ALLOW ME
26. Eliot Ness, e.g. T-MAN
27. Pre-euro Iberian coin ESCUDO
29. Rodeo horse BRONCO
32. Comic strip cry ACK!
34. Greek vowel ETA
37. Ring-tailed scavenger, to Crockett COON
38. Formulate a possible explanation THEORIZE
39. Overly compliant MEEK
40. Doing nothing IDLE
41. Cartoonist’s supply INKS
43. Called out SHOUTED
44. Behind-schedule comment I’M LATE
45. Viagra alternative CIALIS
46. “Full House” twins OLSENS
48. Manually BY HAND
51. Freeloader MOOCH
52. Put one over on CON
55. “__ Master’s Voice” HIS
58. Nest egg item, for short IRA
59. Auction unit LOT
60. Mystery master POE
61. Piece corps, briefly? NRA
62. Hoedown participant GAL

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