LA Times Crossword Answers 8 Oct 14, Wednesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Jeff Stillman
THEME: Eclipses … each of today’s themed answers starts with a type of ECLIPSE:

35D. 17-, 27-, 43- and 58-Across begin with types of them ECLIPSES

17A. Rooftop energy generators SOLAR PANELS (giving “solar eclipse”)
27A. Removable denture PARTIAL PLATE (giving “partial eclipse”)
43A. Apollo 11 achievement LUNAR LANDING (giving “lunar eclipse”)
58A. Eidetic memory TOTAL RECALL (giving “total eclipse”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 8m 28s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Subject of a historic 1919 sports deal, with “The” BABE
1919 was a big year for Babe Ruth and his team, the Boston Red Sox. Ruth broke the league’s record for the number of home runs in one season, and Red Sox had record-breaking attendance at Fenway Park. Team owner Harry Frazee caused some controversy, when he sold Ruth’s contract to the New York Yankees in December of that year.

5. Type of large TV PLASMA
Plasma televisions are so called because the screen is made up tiny cells containing electrically charged ionized gases (plasmas). Each of the cells is effectively a tiny fluorescent lamp.

11. Pre-LCD screen CRT
Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

Liquid crystal display (LCD)

15. Virgil epic AENEID
Publius Vergilius Maro (better known as Virgil) was a poet from Ancient Rome. Virgil’s best known works are:

– The “Eclogues” (or Bucolics)
– The “Georgics”
– The “Aeneid”

“The Aeneid” is Virgil’s epic poem that tells of the journey of Aeneas, a Trojan who traveled to Italy to become the ancestor of all Romans. “The Aeneid” begins with the words “Arma virumque cano …”, which translates as “I sing of arms and of a man …”

17. Rooftop energy generators SOLAR PANELS (giving “solar eclipse”)
Solar panels make use of what’s known as the photovoltaic effect. We all learned about the photoelectric effect in school, in which electrons were ejected from the surface of some materials when it was exposed to light or other forms of radiation. The photovoltaic effect is related but different. Instead of being electrons ejected from the surface, in the photovoltaic effect electrons move around in the material creating a difference in voltage.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes into the shadow cast by the earth from the light of the sun, in other words when the earth is positioned directly between the sun and the moon. The more spectacular solar eclipse takes place when moon passes in front of the sun, so that the earth falls into the shadow cast by the moon.

19. Hieroglyphics snake ASP
The venomous snake called an asp was a symbol of royalty in Ancient Egypt.

20. Standard deviation symbol SIGMA
In the world of statistics, the standard deviation is a measure of how closely data points are clustered around the mean value. A low standard deviation indicates a relatively tight distribution. A standard deviation is usually represented by the Greek letter sigma.

21. Picked-up pickup, perhaps REPO
Repossession (repo)

A pickup is a small truck used to carry light loads. The term “pickup” probably comes from the use of the vehicle to “pick up” goods and then deliver them.

23. Keats’ “__ to a Nightingale” ODE
“Ode to a Nightingale” was one of the so-called “1819 Odes” written by the poet John Keats, a collection that included famous poems such as “Ode on Melancholy”, “Ode on Grecian Urn” and “Ode to Psyche”.

31. Marseille menu CARTE
Marseille (often written “Marseilles” in English) is the second largest city in France, after Paris. Marseille is also the largest commercial port in the country. I used to live nearby, and it’s a lovely, lovely place.

34. Image on a 42-Down, briefly TAT
(42. Common 34-Across site ANKLE)
The word “tattoo” (often shortened to “tat”) was first used in English in the writings of the famous English explorer Captain Cook. In his descriptions of the indelible marks adorning the skin of Polynesian natives, Cook anglicized the Tahitian word “tatau” into our “tattoo”.

35. TV hillbilly __ May Clampett ELLY
Elly May Clampett was played by Donna Douglas on the sixties television show “The Beverly Hillbillies”. Douglas is best known on the big screen for playing the lead opposite Elvis Presley in 1966’s “Frankie and Johnny”.

38. Opening night nightmares PANS
To pan something is to criticize it harshly.

41. Peter or Paul SAINT
In the Christian tradition, Saint Peter is often depicted as the keeper of the gates of heaven. This depiction arises from a passage in the Gospel of Matthew:
I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

According to the Bible, Saint Paul was an apostle, although he was not one of the original Twelve Apostles. Paul is said to have written 14 of the 27 books in the Christian New Testament.

43. Apollo 11 achievement LUNAR LANDING (giving “lunar eclipse”)
The Moon’s Mare Tranquillitatis (Latin for “Sea of Tranquility”) was named in 1651 by astronomers Francesco Grimaldi and Giovanni Battista Riccioli. Famously, the first manned landing on the Moon was in the Sea of Tranquility, when the Apollo 11 Lunar Module named Eagle touched down there in 1969. However, the first man-made vehicle to reach the Sea of Tranquility arrive four years earlier. the Ranger 8 spacecraft was deliberately crashed there in 1965, sending back thousands of photographs to Earth in the last 23 minutes of its mission.

46. Latin clarifier ID EST
i.e. = id est = that is, in Latin …

48. Dr.’s group AMA
American Medical Association (AMA)

52. Farrier’s file RASP
Traditionally there has been a distinction between a farrier and a blacksmith. A blacksmith is someone who forges and shapes iron, perhaps to make horseshoes. A farrier is someone who fits horseshoes onto the hooves of horses. The term “blacksmith” is sometimes used for one who shoes horses, especially as many blacksmiths make horseshoes and fit them as well.

58. Eidetic memory TOTAL RECALL (giving “total eclipse”)
Someone with an eidetic memory is able to recall images with high precision, usually just for a few minutes. The phenomenon is most often observed in young children. The term was coined by German psychologist Erich Jaensch in 1924, with “eidetikos” being Greek for “pertaining to images”.

62. Sicilian rumbler 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.

63. AL and MO STS
Alabama (AL) and Missouri (MO) are US states (sts.)

64. Tropical fruit PAPAYA
The papaya is the fruit of the Carica papaya, a large tree-like plant that is native to southern Mexico and Central America. One traditional use of papaya is as a meat tenderizer. The fruit and sap contain the enzyme papain that breaks down meat fibers. Papain is used today as a component of powdered meat tenderizers.

65. Peters out DIES
The verb phrase “to peter out”, meaning “to fizzle out”, originated in the 1840s in the American mining industry. While the exact etymology isn’t clear, it probably derives from the term “saltpetre”, a constituent of gunpowder.

Down
1. Opera villain, often BASSO
The bass is the lowest male singing voice. A man with such a voice might be called a “basso” (plural “bassi”).

3. Poppycock BILGE
The bilge is lowest internal part of a ship. The water that collects in there is called bilge water. The term “bilge” is also used as slang for nonsense talk.

It is thought that the relatively gentle term “poppycock”, meaning “nonsense”, comes from a Dutch word for “dung” combined with a Latin word for “excrete”. Not so gentle after all …

4. Dutch export EDAM
Edam cheese takes its name from the Dutch town of Edam in North Holland. The cheese is famous for its coating of red paraffin wax, a layer of protection that helps Edam travel well and prevents spoiling. You might occasionally come across an Edam cheese that is coated in black wax. The black color indicates that the underlying cheese has been aged for a minimum of 17 weeks.

5. Mushy food PAP
One meaning of “pap” is soft or semi-liquid food for babies and small children. “Pap” comes into English via French, from the Latin word used by children for “food”. In the 1500s, “pap” also came to mean “an oversimplified” idea. This gives us a usage that’s common today, describing literature or perhaps TV programming that lacks real value or substance. Hands up those who think there’s a lot of pap out there, especially on television …

7. Ill-fated Boleyn ANNE
Anne Boleyn was the second wife of Henry VIII of England. Anne was found guilty of high treason after about a thousand days of marriage to Henry, accused of adultery and incest (probably trumped-up charges). She was executed, but perhaps her legacy lived on in her only child, as her daughter reigned for 45 very prosperous years as Queen Elizabeth I.

9. “Bloom County” reporter MILO
“Bloom County” is a comic strip that originally ran from 1980 to 1989, and which was drawn by cartoonist Berkeley Breathed. The main protagonist of the strip is Milo Bloom, a 10-year-old newspaper reporter.

11. Fraud CHARLATAN
A charlatan is someone who makes false claims of skill or knowledge. It is a word we imported from French, although the original derivation is the Italian “ciarlatano”, the term for “a quack”.

18. Morocco’s capital RABAT
Rabat is the capital city of the Kingdom of Morocco. After WWII, the United States maintained a major Air Force Base in Rabat, part of Strategic Air Command (SAC). Responding to pressure from the Moroccan government of King Mohammed V, the USAF pulled out in 1963.

22. __ Aviv TEL
The full name of Israel’s second largest city is Tel Aviv-Yafo. Tel Aviv translates into “Spring Mound”, a name chosen in 1910.

28. Peruvian of yore INCAN
The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century, in what today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of South America. The Empire of course fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Tupac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.

29. Big shot in the sky ACE
A flying ace is an aviator who has shot down a number of enemy planes during combat. The qualifying number of kills seems to vary, but five is common. The first use of “ace” was during WWI when the French newspapers dubbed pilot Adolphe Pegoud “l’as” (French for “the ace”) when he shot down his fifth German plane.

30. Glasgow gal LASSIE
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and sits on the River Clyde. Back in the Victorian Era, Glasgow earned a reputation for excellence in shipbuilding and was known as “Second City of the British Empire”. Glasgow shipyards were the birthplaces of such famous vessels as the Lusitania, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth.

37. Constellation near Scorpius ARA
The constellation of Ara takes its name from the Latin word for “altar”.

48. Cremona craftsman AMATI
The first of the Amati family to make violins was Andrea Amati, who lived in the 14th century. He was succeeded by his sons, Antonio and Girolamo. In turn, they were succeeded by Girolamo’s son, Nicolo. Nicolo had a few students who achieved fame making musical instruments as well. One was his own son, Girolamo, and another was the famed Antonio Stradivari.

49. “Now We Are Six” author MILNE
“Now We Are Six” is a collection of children’s verses by A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends. It was published in 1927, and illustrated by E. H. Shepard, the man behind the illustrations for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories as well as Kenneth Graham’s equally famous story “The Wind in the Willows”. Indeed, eleven of the verses in “Now We Are Six” are illustrated with images of Winnie the Pooh. Sounds like one for the grand-kids …

50. Geography volume ATLAS
The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas”.

52. Santa __: Sonoma County seat ROSA
Santa Rosa is the largest city in California’s Wine Country, and the county seat of Sonoma County. The epicenter of the so-called 1906 San Francisco Earthquake was located near Santa Rosa, so there was actually more damage in Santa Rosa, for the size of the city, than there was in San Francisco.

54. The “Star Wars” films, e.g. SAGA
Anakin “Ani” Skywalker is the principal character in all six of the “Star Wars” movies. His progress chronologically through the series of films is:

– Episode I: Anakin is a 9-year-old slave boy who earns the promise of Jedi training by young Obi-Wan Kenobi.
– Episode II: Anakin is 18-years-old and goes on a murdering rampage to avenge the killing of his mother.
– Episode III: Anakin is 21-years-old and a Jedi knight, but he turns to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader. His wife Padme gives birth to twins, Luke and Leia Skywalker.
– Episode IV: Darth Vader, comes into conflict with his children, Luke Skywalker and the Princess Leia.
– Episode V: Darth Vader attempts to coax his son Luke over to the dark side, and reveals to Luke that he is his father.
– Episode VI: Luke learns that Leia is his sister, and takes on the task of bringing Darth Vader back from the Dark Side in order to save the Galaxy. Vader saves his son from the Emperor’s evil grip, dying in the process, but his spirit ends up alongside the spirits of Yoda and Obi-Wan. They all live happily ever after …

59. Messenger __ RNA
Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by what is called transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Subject of a historic 1919 sports deal, with “The” BABE
5. Type of large TV PLASMA
11. Pre-LCD screen CRT
14. Enthusiastic AVID
15. Virgil epic AENEID
16. Informal greeting HEY!
17. Rooftop energy generators SOLAR PANELS (giving “solar eclipse”)
19. Hieroglyphics snake ASP
20. Standard deviation symbol SIGMA
21. Picked-up pickup, perhaps REPO
22. On the level TRUE
23. Keats’ “__ to a Nightingale” ODE
24. Hopper BIN
26. Markets SELLS
27. Removable denture PARTIAL PLATE (giving “partial eclipse”)
31. Marseille menu CARTE
33. College Football Playoff gp. NCAA
34. Image on a 42-Down, briefly TAT
35. TV hillbilly __ May Clampett ELLY
36. Looks toward FACES
38. Opening night nightmares PANS
39. Lovey-dovey murmur COO
40. Surrounding glow AURA
41. Peter or Paul SAINT
43. Apollo 11 achievement LUNAR LANDING (giving “lunar eclipse”)
46. Latin clarifier ID EST
47. Fearful squeal EEK!
48. Dr.’s group AMA
51. Medium rare PINK
52. Farrier’s file RASP
55. Restrict LIMIT
57. Witness SEE
58. Eidetic memory TOTAL RECALL (giving “total eclipse”)
60. Kin of -trix -ESS
61. Geometric figure with equal angles ISOGON
62. Sicilian rumbler ETNA
63. AL and MO STS
64. Tropical fruit PAPAYA
65. Peters out DIES

Down
1. Opera villain, often BASSO
2. Skirt AVOID
3. Poppycock BILGE
4. Dutch export EDAM
5. Mushy food PAP
6. Absorbed, as lessons LEARNT
7. Ill-fated Boleyn ANNE
8. Ooze SEEP
9. “Bloom County” reporter MILO
10. They often adorn city buses ADS
11. Fraud CHARLATAN
12. Consequential RESULTANT
13. Prepares for printing TYPESETS
18. Morocco’s capital RABAT
22. __ Aviv TEL
25. Filled with rage IREFUL
26. Relaxing getaway SPA
27. Get too personal PRY
28. Peruvian of yore INCAN
29. Big shot in the sky ACE
30. Glasgow gal LASSIE
31. Least fair, in a way CLOUDIEST
32. State of seclusion ALONENESS
35. 17-, 27-, 43- and 58-Across begin with types of them ECLIPSES
37. Constellation near Scorpius ARA
38. Oinker PIG
40. Museum filler ART
42. Common 34-Across site ANKLE
44. Query ASK
45. Position strategically DEPLOY
48. Cremona craftsman AMATI
49. “Now We Are Six” author MILNE
50. Geography volume ATLAS
52. Santa __: Sonoma County seat ROSA
53. At the apex of ATOP
54. The “Star Wars” films, e.g. SAGA
56. Like most cupcakes ICED
58. Helpful hint TIP
59. Messenger __ RNA

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