LA Times Crossword Answers 18 Sep 14, Thursday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Scavenging seabird ERN
The ern (also erne) is also called the white-tailed eagle, and the sea-eagle.

9. “Cast Away” star HANKS
Tom Hanks is a such a great actor, I think. He has played so many iconic roles in a relatively short career. Hanks is from California, and studied theater for a couple of years in Hayward, California not far from here. Hanks is married to the talented actress Rita Wilson.

“Cast Away” is a very entertaining adventure film released in 2000 starring Tom Hanks as cast away on a South Pacific island. The Hanks character ends up on the island after a FedEx plane crashes, leaving him marooned there for four years before he manages to escape on a raft. The film had to be filmed in two sessions. For the first session, Hanks gained 50 pounds to make himself look pudgy for the early scenes. The crew had to wait a whole year for Hanks to lose the weight so that they could film the “cast away” scenes.

14. With 12-Down, Rodin sculpture THE
(12D. See 14-Across KISS)
“The Kiss” is a beautiful sculpture created in 1889 by Auguste Rodin. I’ve had the privilege of standing beside the original, life-size marble work on a few occasions as it is housed in the Rodin Museum, my favorite of all museums in Paris. The Musée Rodin is very special in that the building and garden that hold all of the works were Rodin’s actual home and studio. Well worth a visit if you make it to Paris …

20. Machu Picchu dweller INCA
Machu Picchu is known as “The Lost City of the Incas”, and it can be visited on a mountain ridge in Peru, 50 miles northwest of the city of Cuzco in the southeast of the country. The name Machu Picchu means “old peak”. The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu originates about 50 miles from Cuzco on the Urubamba River in Peru. It can take travelers about 5 days to trek the full length of the trail, passing through many Incan ruins before reaching the Sun Gate on Machu Picchu mountain. The trail was becoming greatly overused, forcing the Peruvian government to limit the number of people on the trail each day to 500. Book early …

22. Mashed taro, mostly POI
The corm of some taro plants is used to make poi, the traditional Hawaiian dish (that I think tastes horrible). When a taro plant is grown as an ornamental, it is often called Elephant Ears due to the shape of its large leaves.

24. 1993 film loosely based on the Jamaican bobsled team COOL RUNNINGS
“Cool Runnings” is a 1993 comedy film that is based on the true story of a bobsled team from Jamaica that competed in the 1998 Winter Olympics. The big name in the cast is John Candy.

“Bobsleds” are so called because competitors in the sport originally would bob in and out of the sled in order to increase its speed.

36. __ wave SINE
A sine wave is a mathematical function that describes a simple, smooth, repetitive oscillation. The sine wave is found right throughout the natural world. Ocean waves, light waves and sound waves all have a sine wave pattern.

41. Vocalist Vannelli GINO
Gino Vannelli is a Canadian singer, from Montreal, Quebec. Today. Vannelli is very popular in Holland, and divides his time between his homes in the US and the Netherlands.

42. Heavy reading? TOMES
“Tome” first came into English from the Latin “tomus” which means “section of a book”. The original usage in English was for a single volume in a multi-volume work. By the late 16th century “tome” had come to mean “a large book”.

43. Ukr., once SSR
Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe, a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) before the dissolution of the USSR. In English we often call the country “the” Ukraine, but I am told that we should just say “Ukraine”.

44. Disney World visitor’s airport, on bag tags ORL
Orlando in Central Florida is the largest inland city in the state. Orlando was the most visited city in the US in 2009, mainly as the city and environs has many theme parks including Walt Disney World, Universal Studios Florida and SeaWorld.

The Magic Kingdom in Disney World, Florida receives more visitors annually than any other theme park in the whole world. The Magic Kingdom alone received about 17½ million visitors in 2012, and that’s not including the visitors to Epcot, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

45. Bluish hue CYAN
“Cyan” is short for “cyan blue”. The term comes from the Greek word “kyanos” meaning “dark blue, the color of lapis lazuli”.

51. Acadia National Park locale MAINE
Acadia National Park in Maine was created in 1919, although back then it was called Lafayette National Park in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette who famously supported the American Revolution. The park was renamed to Acadia in 1929.

54. Like lingerie models SEXY
“Lingerie” is a French term, but as used in France it just means any underwear, worn by either males or females. In English we use “lingerie” to describe alluring underclothing worn by women. The term “lingerie” comes into English via the French word “linge” meaning “washables”, and ultimately from the Latin “linum”, meaning “linen”. We tend not to pronounce the word correctly in English, either here in the US or across the other side of the Atlantic. The French pronunciation is more like “lan-zher-ee”, as opposed to “lon-zher-ay” (American) and “lon-zher-ee” (British).

55. Green-skinned movie villain WICKED WITCH
In the 1939 movie “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, Dorothy arrives in the Land of Oz after her farmhouse is swept up in a cyclone. The farmhouse comes to ground and kills the Wicked Witch of the East. The Wicked Witch of the West arrives to claim the magical ruby slippers worn by the Wicked Witch Witch of the East. The Good Witch of the North steps in and gives the ruby slippers to Dorothy instead.

58. __City: computer game SIM
“SimCity” is a very clever computer game, in which players build and grow cities and societies by creating the conditions necessary for people (the Sims) to move in and thrive. “SimCity” first came out in 1989, and to this day is consistently ranked as one of the greatest computer games of all time.

59. Bull on a glue container ELMER
Elsie the Cow is the mascot of the Borden Company. Elsie first appeared at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, introduced to symbolize the perfect dairy product. Elsie was also given a husband named Elmer the Bull. Elmer eventually moved over to the chemical division of Borden where he gave his name to Elmer’s Glue.

60. Beaufort __ SCALE
The Beaufort wind scale is named after Irishman, Sir Francis Beaufort, a Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy. Beaufort was a hydrographer as well as a career navy man.

63. Celebrated 2014 sports retiree JETER
Derek Jeter has played his entire professional baseball career with the New York Yankees, and is the team’s captain. Jeter is the all-time career leader for the Yankees in hits, games played, stolen bases and at bats. He is also the all-time leader in hits by a shortstop in the whole of professional baseball.

Down
2. Safari sight RHINO
There are five types of rhinoceros that survive today, and the smaller Javan Rhino is the most rare. The rhinoceros is probably the rarest large mammal on the planet, thanks to poaching. Hunters mainly prize the horn of the rhino as it is used in powdered form in traditional Chinese medicine.

“Safari” is a Swahili word, meaning “journey” or “expedition”.

3. Colorful candy since 1847 NECCO WAFER
Necco Wafers are the best known product line of the candy manufacturer called the New England Confectionery Company. The firm’s name is abbreviated to NECCO, an acronym that became synonymous with the wafers.

4. Grass bristle AWN
Awn is the name given to hair or bristle-like structures found in numerous species of plants. In some species, like barley, the awns can contain photosynthetic tissue.

6. Georgia’s __-Bibb County MACON
The Georgia city of Macon was recently merged with Bibb County to form Macon-Bibb county, consolidating two governing entities in the process.

8. Codebreaker’s org. NSA
National Security Agency (NSA)

11. 2014 Russell Crowe title role NOAH
The 2014 epic film “Noah” stars Russell Crowe in the title role, and is based on the biblical story of “Noah’s Ark”. The film was largely shot in Southern Iceland. Scenes that included the ark itself were shot in Upper Brookville, New York at the Planting Fields Arboretum.

Russell Crowe is a highly successful actor from New Zealand. Understandably, he doesn’t like people to call him “Australian”, even though it was in Australia that he launched his acting career. Not too long before the 9/11 attacks, the FBI contacted Crowe to inform him that al-Qaeda was plotting to kidnap him as part of a general attack on high-profile “American” icons. For a few months the New Zealander was guarded by Secret Service agents.

26. Dome-shaped abode IGLOO
The Inuit word for “house” is “iglu”, which we usually write as “igloo”. The Greenlandic (yes, that’s a language) word for “house” is very similar, namely “igdlo”.

29. “Love Actually” co-star LIAM NEESON
Irish actor Liam Neeson got his big break when he played Oskar Schindler in the Spielberg epic, “Schindler’s List”. Neeson was in the news a few years ago when he lost his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, in a tragic skiing accident in 2009.

“Love Actually” is a wonderful British romantic comedy, a film we watch every Christmas. The movie has a great ensemble cast and was written and directed by Richard Curtis. Curtis was also the man behind “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “Notting Hill”. “Love Actually” is very much in the same style as these earlier films.

31. Chinchillas, at times PETS
A chinchilla is a rodent found in the Andes in South America. The chinchilla is a little larger than a squirrel, and has velvet-like fur. It takes its name from the local Chincha people who made clothing out of the fur. Chinchillas are quite rare in the wild now as they been hunted almost out of existence, but there are plenty of farm-raised chinchillas around supporting the fur industry, sad to say …

32. “American __”: Neil Gaiman novel GODS
Neil Gaiman is an English author whose works include novels, comic books and graphic novels.

33. Sci-fi staples UFOS
In 1952, the USAF revived its studies of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in a program called Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book ran from 1952 until it was shut down in 1969 with the conclusion that there was no threat to national security and that there were no sightings that could not be explained within the bounds of modern scientific knowledge.

35. “__ appétit!” BON
“Bon appétit!” i “enjoy your meal” in French. The Germans say the exact same thing, only in German … “Guten Appetit!”.

36. Weasel kin STOATS
The stoat has dark brown fur in the summer, and white fur in the winter. Sometimes the term “ermine” is used for the animal during the winter when the fur is white. Ermine skins have long been prized by royalty and are often used for white trim on ceremonial robes.

39. Charon’s river STYX
The River Styx of Greek mythology was the river that formed the boundary between the Earth and the Underworld (or “Hades”). The souls of the newly dead had to cross the River Styx in a ferry boat piloted by Charon. Traditionally, a coin would be placed in the mouths of the dead “to pay the ferryman”.

46. “Oliver Twist” bad guy SIKES
Bill Sikes is the nasty criminal associate of Fagin in the Charles Dicken’s novel “Oliver Twist”.

“Oliver Twist” is a novel by Charles Dickens. It is a popular tale for adaptation to the big screen. There were two silent film versions, in 1909 and 1922, and the first talkie version was released in 1933, with many to follow. The latest “Oliver” for the big screen was a 2005 Roman Polanski production.

50. Queens athlete, for short NY MET
The New York Mets baseball team was founded in 1962, a replacement for two teams that the city had lost, namely the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. For several years the Mets played very poorly, finishing no better than second-to-last in their division. Then of course along came the “Miracle Mets” who beat the Baltimore Orioles in 1969 to claim the World Series in a huge upset.

55. Site site WEB
The World Wide Web was effectively the invention of British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. The key to Berner-Lee’s invention was bringing together two technologies that already existed: hypertext and the Internet. I for one am very grateful …

56. Paper with NYSE news WSJ
“The Wall Street Journal” (WSJ) is a daily newspaper with a business bent that is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company. The WSJ has a larger US circulation than any other newspaper, with “USA Today” coming in second place.

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

57. Part of HRH HER
His/Her Royal Highness (HRH)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Scavenging seabird ERN
4. “You gotta be kidding me!” AW, MAN!
9. “Cast Away” star HANKS
14. With 12-Down, Rodin sculpture THE
15. “__ the big deal?” WHAT’S
16. Bustling ABOIL
17. Sound that may be averted by holding one’s breath HIC!
18. “Take your time” NICE AND EASY
20. Machu Picchu dweller INCA
22. Mashed taro, mostly POI
23. Promising words OATHS
24. 1993 film loosely based on the Jamaican bobsled team COOL RUNNINGS
27. Cry WEEP
28. Graphic beginning? GEO-
29. Sass LIP
32. Watch carefully GUARD
34. Equipped ABLE
36. __ wave SINE
37. Beginning auspiciously … like 18-, 24-, 46- and 55-Across? OFF TO A GOOD START
40. Works on, as homework DOES
41. Vocalist Vannelli GINO
42. Heavy reading? TOMES
43. Ukr., once SSR
44. Disney World visitor’s airport, on bag tags ORL
45. Bluish hue CYAN
46. NCAA regional semifinals, familiarly SWEET SIXTEEN
51. Acadia National Park locale MAINE
53. Word with game or room WAR
54. Like lingerie models SEXY
55. Green-skinned movie villain WICKED WITCH
58. __City: computer game SIM
59. Bull on a glue container ELMER
60. Beaufort __ SCALE
61. World Cup cheer OLE!
62. Anoint BLESS
63. Celebrated 2014 sports retiree JETER
64. Site site NET

Down
1. Moral code ETHIC
2. Safari sight RHINO
3. Colorful candy since 1847 NECCO WAFER
4. Grass bristle AWN
5. Throw together WHIP UP
6. Georgia’s __-Bibb County MACON
7. Enjoyed some home cooking ATE IN
8. Codebreaker’s org. NSA
9. Tried one’s hand HAD A GO
10. Provides inside information for, say ABETS
11. 2014 Russell Crowe title role NOAH
12. See 14-Across KISS
13. Foxy SLY
19. “You don’t have to” NO NEED
21. They may be red ALERTS
25. More than modify REDO
26. Dome-shaped abode IGLOO
29. “Love Actually” co-star LIAM NEESON
30. Memo words IN RE
31. Chinchillas, at times PETS
32. “American __”: Neil Gaiman novel GODS
33. Sci-fi staples UFOS
34. Like acrobats AGILE
35. “__ appétit!” BON
36. Weasel kin STOATS
38. “It’s a deal!” AGREED!
39. Charon’s river STYX
44. Title holders OWNERS
45. Group with a common bond CIRCLE
46. “Oliver Twist” bad guy SIKES
47. Double TWICE
48. Grabbed a stool next to SAT AT
49. Banishment EXILE
50. Queens athlete, for short NY MET
51. Flour producer MILL
52. Peak ACME
55. Site site WEB
56. Paper with NYSE news WSJ
57. Part of HRH HER

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