LA Times Crossword Answers 3 Oct 14, Friday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Mark McClain
THEME: ADD A DD … each of today’s themed answers is a common phrase, but with a DD inserted into the last word:

17A. Duck royalty? PRINCE OF WADDLES (from “Prince of Wales”)
26A. Heck of a pop? ONE FINE DADDY (from “One Fine Day”)
48A. Trader who doesn’t take the market seriously? STOCK PIDDLER (from “stockpiler”)
63A. Classified instrument? TOP SECRET FIDDLE (from “top secret file”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 14m 06s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

10. European capital KIEV
Kiev is the capital of Ukraine and a beautiful city, from what I’ve heard from friends who have visited …

15. Basket HOOP
Basketball is truly an American sport. It was created in 1891 by a James Naismith at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. His goal was to create something active and interesting for his students in the gym. The first “hoops” were actually peach baskets, with the bottoms of the baskets intact. When a player got the ball into the “net”, someone had to clamber up and get the ball back out again in order to continue the game!

16. Land in un lago ISLA
In Spanish, an island (isla) can be found in a lake (lago).

17. Duck royalty? PRINCE OF WADDLES (from “Prince of Wales”)
The tradition in the UK is to invest the heir-apparent to the throne with the title of Prince of Wales. Since Prince Charles is that heir today, he is called Prince of Wales and his first wife was known as Diana, Princess of Wales. Both of their children also use the title, Prince William of Wales and Prince Henry of Wales.

21. French 101 pronoun VOUS
In French, “vous” is the pronoun “you”, when referring to more than one person, or to a single person who is not an intimate acquaintance.

23. Iowa city on I-35 AMES
The city of Ames, Iowa is famous for holding the Ames Straw Poll in advance of most presidential elections. The poll in question is used to gauge the level of support for two or more Republican candidates, although non-Republicans are allowed to cast a vote. To vote one has to be an Iowa resident and one must buy a ticket to the fundraising dinner at which the vote is taken. The event gets a lot of coverage, so it boosts the local economy as journalists hit the town. It is a very successful fundraiser for the Republican Party in Iowa as well, but the usefulness of the straw poll in predicting the eventual winner of the nomination is less clear. There have been five straw polls since 1979, and just 2 out of 5 times the poll winner went on to capture the party’s nomination.

Interstate 35 runs in a north-south direction from Laredo, Texas to Duluth, Minnesota. So, I-35 almost runs all the way from the Mexican border to the Canadian border, but not quite …

26. Heck of a pop? ONE FINE DADDY (from “One Fine Day”)
“One Fine Day” is a song written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin that was a 1963 hit for the Chiffons. The title of the song was inspired by the famous aria “Un bel di” (“One Fine Day”) from Puccini’s opera “Madama Butterfly”.

31. Symbol seen in viola music C-CLEF
Clef is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on the stave. Usually, a G-clef is used for high parts, a C-clef for middle parts and an F-clef for low parts.

32. Parisian map line RUE
“Rue” is the French word for “street”.

33. Oracle SEER
In Ancient Greece and Rome, an oracle was someone believed inspired by the gods to give wise counsel. The word “oracle” derives from the Latin “orare” meaning “to speak”, which is the same root for our word “orator”. One of the most important oracles of Ancient Greece was the priestess to Apollo at Delphi.

37. Edinburgh souvenir TAM
A tam o’shanter is a man’s cap traditionally worn by Scotsmen. “Tams” were originally all blue (and called “blue bonnets”), but as more dyes became readily available they became more colorful. The name of the cap comes from the title character of Robert Burns’ poem “Tam O’Shanter”.

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, and is a really beautiful city. In days gone by it might not have been quite so charming though. Like many cities, plumes of smoke hung over Edinburgh when coal and wood fires weren’t regulated. To this day, the city has the nickname “Auld Reekie”, Scots for “Old Smoky”.

38. Army post merged with McGuire AFB and Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst FT DIX, NJ
Fort Dix is the name commonly used for what is now more correctly called Joint Base McGuire -Dix-Lakehurst, a US Army base located near Trenton, New Jersey. Fort Dix was established in 1917 by the Army, and was consolidated with nearby Air Force and Navy facilities in 2009.

42. Youngest goal scorer in MLS history ADU
Freddy Adu is an American soccer player who grew up in Ghana. Adu signed for D.C. United in 2004 when he was only 14 years old. That made him the youngest athlete ever to sign a professional contract in the US.

43. Hops kiln OAST
An oast is a kiln used for drying hops as part of the brewing process. Such a structure might also be called an “oast house”.

56. Like most tupelo leaves OVATE
The tupelo is genus of tree in the dogwood family. The tree gives its name to the city of Tupelo, Mississippi.

57. His epitaph reads “And the beat goes on” BONO
Sonny Bono was a recording artist who later moved into the world of politics. As a musical entertainer, Bono was most famous for his recordings as a duo with Cher, who later became his second wife. The couple divorced, but continued to work together. Bono went into politics, first as the mayor of Palm Springs, California and later as a representative for a California district in the US House of Representatives. Sadly, Bono was killed in a skiing accident in 1998. Coincidently, Michael Kennedy (son of Robert F. Kennedy) had died in a similar skiing accident just one week earlier. The epitaph on Bono’s gravestone reads “And the Beat Goes On”, a reference to the 1967 Sonny & Cher hit “The Beat Goes On”, which was written by Sonny.

66. Language that gave us “plaid” ERSE
There are actually three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be Gaeilge (in Ireland), Gaelg (on the Isle of Man) and Gaidhlig (in Scotland).

Tartan is sometimes called “plaid” over here in the US, a word not used in the same sense outside of this country. In Scotland a “plaid” is a blanket or a tartan cloth slung over the shoulder.

67. Green Gables girl ANNE
“Anne of Green Gables” is a 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Montgomery wrote several sequels to “Anne”, with them all being set on Prince Edward Island, from where the author hailed.

68. Provider of store melodies MUZAK
“Muzak” is a proprietary name for piped music, apparently a blend of the words “music” and “Kodak”. The Muzak system was developed way back in 1922 and was first used in workplaces.

69. Caustic cleaners LYES
What we call “lye” is usually sodium hydroxide, although historically the term was used for potassium hydroxide. Lye has many uses, including to cure several foodstuffs. Lye can make olives less bitter, for example. The chemical is also found in canned mandarin oranges, pretzels and Japanese ramen noodles. More concentrated grades of lye are used to clear drains and clean ovens. Scary …

71. Slanted columns OP-EDS
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.

Down
2. Angler’s item LURE
We use the verb “to angle” to mean “to fish” because “angel” was an Old English word for a hook.

3. The “Toreador Song,” for one ARIA
“Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre” is more commonly called “The Toreador Song”, and is one of the most famous arias in Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen”. “Toreador” is an old Spanish word for a bullfighter, but it’s a term not used any more in Spain nor in Latin America. In English we use the term “toreador”, but in Spanish a bullfighter is a “torero”.

4. 19th-century trail terminus SANTA FE
The Santa Fe Trail connected Franklin, Missouri in the east to Santa Fe, New Mexico in the west. It was an oft-travelled route for much of the 1800s before the advent of the railroad in 1880.

5. Utah luggage tag initials SLC
Salt Lake City (SLC) was founded by Brigham Young, in 1847. The city takes its name from the Great Salt Lake on which it sits, and indeed was known as “Great Salt Lake City” up until 1868.

7. Vegan menu item TOFU
Tofu is another name for bean curd, and is a Japanese word meaning just that … bean that has “curdled”. Tofu is produced by coagulating soy milk, using either salt or something acidic. Once the protein has coagulated, the curds are pressed into the familiar blocks. Personally I love tofu, but my wife, she absolutely hates it …

9. Spring resort SPA
The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as Spa is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.

10. Vital pair KIDNEYS
Our kidneys perform several vital functions, the best-known being the removal of waste products from the bloodstream, that are then excreted in the urine.

11. Town including part of Fire Island ISLIP
The town of Islip is on the south shore of Long Island. It is home to Islip Airport, now known as Long Island MacArthur Airport, used by many as a viable alternative to JFK and LaGuardia.

Fire Island is a barrier island on the south shore of Long Island, New York.

19. Longtime Connecticut senator DODD
Thomas Dodd was both a US Senator and Representative for the State of Connecticut. Dodd was the second highest ranking counsel at the International Military Tribunal held in Nuremberg after WWII, and spent about a year and a half in Germany. For his work after the war, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Dodd entered politics on his return to the US although his career ended badly as he was censured by the US Senate for the personal use of campaign funds.

Chris Dodd is a Democrat who served as the Senator for the State of Connecticut for 30 years until 2011, when he chose not to run for reelection. Dodd now works as the chief lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America. Chris Dodd is the son of Thomas J. Dodd, who also served as a US Senator.

24. Offend MIFF
“To miff” is “to put out, to tee off”, a word that has been around since the early 1600s. Interestingly, in 1824 Sir Walter Scott described the word “miffed” as “a women’s phrase”. That would get him a slap, I’d say …

25. Gulf of __ ADEN
The Gulf of Aden is the body of water that lies south of the Red Sea, and just north of the Horn of Africa.

27. Sports regulatory org. NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910.

28. Canopy components at the Mall in Central Park ELMS
The man most associated with the decision to develop Central Park in New York City was William Cullen Bryant, the editor of what today is the “New York Post”. He argued that the growing city needed a large, public open space, along the lines of Hyde Park in London and the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. Most of the park’s construction took place between 1860 and 1873. Much of the clearing work was accomplished using gunpowder, and it is often noted that more gunpowder was used in Central Park than in the Battle of Gettysburg.

29. Quaff DRINK
“Quaff” is both a verb and a noun. One quaffs (takes a hearty drink) of a quaff (a hearty drink).

30. Verb type: Abbr. AUX
An auxiliary verb is also known as a helping verb. An auxiliary verb’s role is to “help” the main verb by perhaps creating the passive form of the verb, or maybe changing its emphasis. The auxiliary verb “to be” is used to create the passive voice, as in “the blog post was written”.

34. One titled “Lord”  EARL
In Britain, the term “lord” is used generically for any member of the peerage. There are five ranks of peer, namely duke, marquess, earl, viscount and baron, in descending order. “Lord” can also used as an term of address for each of the ranks (except dukes). This “equivalence” of “lord” and “peer” is also seen in the name given to the upper house of Parliament. Usually referred to as the House of Lords, in fact the official name for the chamber is the House of Peers.

36. River past Duisburg RUHR
The Ruhr is a medium-sized river in Germany that flows from east to west, ultimately emptying into the Rhine.

Duisburg is a city in the west of Germany that sits at the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers. Duisburg is home to the biggest inland harbor in the world.

39. Uncommon bills TWOS
The US two-dollar bill features a portrait of Thomas Jefferson. The bill was introduced in 1862, and withdrawn in 1966. It was reintroduced in 1976, and is still legal tender. That said, there are relatively few two-dollar bills in circulation. Some people even hold that possession of a two-dollar bill is bad luck.

40. Bashful companion? DOC
In the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale called “Snow White”, the seven dwarfs were not given any names. The names were added for the 1937 classic Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The seven dwarfs are:

– Doc (the leader of the group)
– Grumpy (that would be me, according to my wife …)
– Happy
– Sleepy
– Bashful
– Sneezy
– Dopey

41. Green stone JADE
Jade is actually the name given to two different mineral rocks, both of which are used to make gemstones. The first is nephrite, a mineral with a varying degree of iron content, the more iron the greener the color. The second is jadeite, a sodium and aluminum-rich pyroxene. As well as being used for gemstones, both jade minerals can be carved into decorative pieces.

44. Sleeping sickness carriers TSETSES
Tsetse flies live on the blood of vertebrate mammals. The name “tsetse” comes from Tswana, a language of southern Africa, and translates simply as “fly”. Tsetse flies are famous for being carriers of the disease known as “sleeping sickness”. Sleeping sickness is caused by a parasite which is passed onto humans when the tsetse fly bites into human skin tissue. If one considers all the diseases transmitted by the insect, then the tsetse fly is responsible for a staggering quarter of a million deaths each year.

57. Czech Republic’s second-largest city BRNO
Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic (after Prague).

58. Wine opener? OENO-
In Greek mythology, Oeno was the goddess of wine, giving us “oeno-” as a prefix meaning “wine”. For example, oenology is the study of wine and an oenophile is a wine-lover.

60. Carving tool ADZE
An adze (also adz) is similar to an axe, but is different in that the blade of an adze is set at right angles to the tool’s shaft. An axe’s blade is set in line with the shaft.

61. Historic “Impaler” VLAD
Vlad III was a 15th century ruler in modern-day Bulgaria. He was given the name “Vlad the Impaler” after he died, and this suggests that he was in the habit of impaling his enemies. His father, Vlad II, was known as Vlad Dracul, which translates as Vlad the Devil or Dragon. As a result, Vlad the Impaler was also known by the diminutive form of his father’s name i.e. Dracula! Bram Stoker borrowed this name for his famous 1897 novel titled “Dracula”.

64. Carolina quarterback Newton CAM
Cam Newton plays quarterback for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.

65. Letters before a view, maybe IMO
In my opinion (IMO)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Wine order GLASS
6. NFL linemen CTRS
10. European capital KIEV
14. Kind of comprehension AURAL
15. Basket HOOP
16. Land in un lago ISLA
17. Duck royalty? PRINCE OF WADDLES (from “Prince of Wales”)
20. It may be taken SEAT
21. French 101 pronoun VOUS
22. In the cooler ON ICE
23. Iowa city on I-35 AMES
25. Highly skilled ones ADEPTS
26. Heck of a pop? ONE FINE DADDY (from “One Fine Day”)
31. Symbol seen in viola music C-CLEF
32. Parisian map line RUE
33. Oracle SEER
37. Edinburgh souvenir TAM
38. Army post merged with McGuire AFB and Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst FT DIX, NJ
42. Youngest goal scorer in MLS history ADU
43. Hops kiln OAST
45. Took top honors WON
46. Exasperated cry AARGH!
48. Trader who doesn’t take the market seriously? STOCK PIDDLER (from “stockpiler”)
52. Some runners MILERS
55. Betrayed, in a way USED
56. Like most tupelo leaves OVATE
57. His epitaph reads “And the beat goes on” BONO
59. Part of a roof EAVE
63. Classified instrument? TOP SECRET FIDDLE (from “top secret file”)
66. Language that gave us “plaid” ERSE
67. Green Gables girl ANNE
68. Provider of store melodies MUZAK
69. Caustic cleaners LYES
70. __ swings MOOD
71. Slanted columns OP-EDS

Down
1. Mountain passes GAPS
2. Angler’s item LURE
3. The “Toreador Song,” for one ARIA
4. 19th-century trail terminus SANTA FE
5. Utah luggage tag initials SLC
6. Pick CHOOSE
7. Vegan menu item TOFU
8. Garden divisions ROWS
9. Spring resort SPA
10. Vital pair KIDNEYS
11. Town including part of Fire Island ISLIP
12. Pick ELECT
13. Florist’s inventory VASES
18. Not-one link EVEN
19. Longtime Connecticut senator DODD
24. Offend MIFF
25. Gulf of __ ADEN
26. Numerical prefix OCTO-
27. Sports regulatory org. NCAA
28. Canopy components at the Mall in Central Park ELMS
29. Quaff DRINK
30. Verb type: Abbr. AUX
34. One titled “Lord”  EARL
35. Do lawn work EDGE
36. River past Duisburg RUHR
39. Uncommon bills TWOS
40. Bashful companion? DOC
41. Green stone JADE
44. Sleeping sickness carriers TSETSES
47. Seemed logical ADDED UP
49. Place for a nest egg TREE
50. Gave up the ball PUNTED
51. “Time __ the essence” IS OF
52. Roadside business MOTEL
53. Creamy white IVORY
54. Memory problem LAPSE
57. Czech Republic’s second-largest city BRNO
58. Wine opener? OENO-
60. Carving tool ADZE
61. Historic “Impaler” VLAD
62. Comics screams EEKS
64. Carolina quarterback Newton CAM
65. Letters before a view, maybe IMO

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