LA Times Crossword Answers 19 Dec 14, Friday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: John Lampkin
THEME: Argon … each of today’s themed answers is a common phrase, but with the letter sequence “AR “GONE, which sounds like ARGON:

67A. Noble gas, and a homophonic hint to how this puzzle’s four longest answers are formed ARGON

20A. Easy mark with a sob story? CRIER PIGEON (from “carrier pigeon”)
54A. Shirt that hardly covers anything? MINIMALIST T (from “minimalist art”)
10D. Ruckus at a coven? BROOM BRAWL (from “barroom brawl”)
28D. Very small pharmaceutical mail order? PILL TO POST (from “pillar to post”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 26m 36s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. What Rudolph used to be called NAMES
We get the names for Santa’s reindeer from the famous 1823 poem called “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, although we’ve modified a couple of the names over the years. The full list is:

– Dasher
– Dancer
– Prancer
– Vixen
– Comet
– Cupid
– Donder (originally published as “Dunder” in error, and now often “Donner”)
– Blitzen (originally “Blixem”)

Rudolph was added to the list by retailer Montgomery Ward, would you believe? The store commissioned Robert L. May to create a booklet that could be handed out to children around Christmas in 1939, and May introduced us to a new friend for Santa, namely Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. May’s brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, adapted the story of Rudolph into the Christmas song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, which became a number-one hit for Gene Autry in December 1949.

All of the other reindeer
used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
play in any reindeer games.

9. Beatles song syllables OB-LA
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” was one of many songs credited to Lennon/McCartney that was actually written by just one of the pair. Paul McCartney wrote this one, a song that John Lennon really did not like at all. Apparently Lennon was quite obstructionist during the recording of the song and even walked out at one point.

15. Baseball letters RHE
On baseball scoreboards we see the letters RHE, standing for Runs, Hits and Errors.

16. Baseball’s Hershiser OREL
Orel Hershiser is big into poker now that he has retired from Major League Baseball. Hershiser lives in Las Vegas and when he isn’t working for ESPN, apparently he is at the poker tables.

17. Baseball champs of 2013 RED SOX
The Boston Red Sox is one of the most successful Major League Baseball teams and so commands a large attendance, but only when on the road. The relatively small capacity of Boston’s Fenway Park, the team’s home since 1912, has dictated that every game the Red Sox has played there has been a sell out since May of 2003.

22. Trail terminus: Abbr. ORE
The Oregon Trail was established by fur trappers and traders as early as 1811. The first migrant wagon train traveled the route in 1836, starting off in Independence, Idaho and going as far as Fort Hall, Idaho. In the coming years, the trail was extended for wagons as far as the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

23. British pop singer Lewis LEONA
Leona Lewis rocketed to fame after winning the British TV show called “The X Factor” (the show that spawned the UK’s “Pop Idol” and America’s “American Idol”).

24. Expressionist painter LeRoy NEIMAN
LeRoy Neiman is an artist from Braham, Minnesota who is known for his vibrant paintings of athletes and sporting events. Niemen lives in a home in New York City overlooking Central Park that has a great pedigree in terms of residents. Former occupants include artist Norman Rockwell as well as entertainers Rudolph Valentino and Noël Coward.

26. Habitat for some ibexes ALPS
Ibex is a common name for various species of mountain goat. “Ibex” is a Latin name that was used for wild goats found in the Alps and Apennines in Europe.

29. Coke go-with RUM
The cocktail known as a Cuba Libre is basically a Rum and Coke although the traditional recipe calls for some lime juice to be added.

30. Balkan native SERB
Serbs are an ethnic group native to the Balkans in southeastern Europe. Although Serbs exist as a minority group in many countries in the region, they are the majority ethnic group in Serbia, in Montenegro and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe is usually referred to as “the Balkans”. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains located in present-day Bulgaria and Serbia. “Balkan” is Bulgarian for “mountain”.

31. Part of a team observation NO I
There is no “I’ in “team”.

32. Fine groove STRIA
A stria is a linear mark or groove on a surface, often one of a series of parallel lines.

34. Salt’s output YARNS
“Salt” is a slang word for a sailor.

37. It’s seldom total ECLIPSE
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.

41. 1960 Olympic gold medalist Rudolph WILMA
Wilma Rudolph was a track and field athlete from Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. Winning three gold medals in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, she was labelled “the Tornado, the fastest woman on earth”. Rudolph suffered from infantile paralysis when she was four years old, and had to wear a brace on her left leg for five years. She had to wear an orthopedic shoe for a further two years. Amazing …

42. Cape Cod catch SCROD
Scrod is the name given to fish that has been “scrawed” i.e. split open, dried and then broiled.

44. Intl. commerce group WTO
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The stated aim of the WTO is to liberalize international trade. The organization was founded in 1995 when an international agreement on trade was reached that effectively replaced the existing General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that was laid down in 1949.

45. One-third of a WWII film TORA
The pre-determined code word to be used by the Japanese if they managed to achieve surprise in their attack on Pearl Harbor was “tiger”, or “tora” in Japanese. This gave the name to the excellent 1970 movie “Tora! Tora! Tora!”.

51. Some future fliers PUPAE
The pupa is an intermediate stage in the development of an insect. All four stages are embryo, larva, pupa and imago.

61. Hamper HOGTIE
The “hogtie” was first used on pigs (hence the name), and involves the tying together of all four limbs in order to render the animal immobile. On a pig, or any other four legged animal, the limbs are obviously tied in front. To hogtie a human the hands are usually tied behind the back and joined to a rope binding the ankles.

62. “… we fat all / creatures __ to fat us”: Hamlet ELSE
A certain convocation of politic worms are e’en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service—two dishes, but to one table.

63. Roger or Brian of music ENO
Brian Eno composed an album in 1978 called “Ambient 1: Music for Airports”, the first in a series of four albums with an “Ambient” theme. Eno named the tracks somewhat inventively: 1/1, 2/1, 2/1 and 2/2.

Roger Eno is the brother of musician Brian Eno. Roger is also known as a composer of ambient music.

66. Margarita condimento SAL
In Spanish, salt (sal)) is a seasoning (condimento).

No one seems to know for sure who first created the cocktail known as a margarita. The most plausible and oft-quoted is that it was invented in 1941 in Ensenada, Mexico. The barman mixed the drink for an important visitor, the daughter of the German ambassador. The daughter’s name was Margarita Henkel, and she lent her name to the new drink. The basic recipe for a margarita is a mixture of tequila, orange-flavored liqueur (like Cointreau) and lime juice.

67. Noble gas, and a homophonic hint to how this puzzle’s four longest answers are formed ARGON
The rare gases are better known as the noble gases, but neither term is really very accurate. Noble gas might be a better choice though, as they are all relatively nonreactive. But rare they are not. Argon, for example, is a major constituent (1%) of the air that we breathe.

Down
4. Stands by an artist EASELS
The word “easel” comes from an old Dutch word meaning “donkey” would you believe? The idea is that an easel carries its load (an oil painting, say) just as a donkey would carry its load.

6. Folding craft ORIGAMI
Origami is the traditional Japanese art form of paper folding. The word “origami” is derived from “ori“ (folding) and “kami” (paper).

8. Dovetail sections TENONS
One simple type of joint used in carpentry is a mortise and tenon, basically a projection carved at the end of one piece of wood that fits into a hole cut into the end of another. In a dovetail joint, the projecting tenon is not rectangular but is cut at a bias, so that when the dovetails are joined they resist being pulled apart. You’ll see dovetail joints in drawers around the house.

10. Ruckus at a coven? BROOM BRAWL (from “barroom brawl”)
“Coven” is an old Scottish word meaning simply “gathering”. The first known application of the word to witchcraft came during the trial of a Scotswoman in 1662 accused of being a witch. At that time, “coven” came to mean a group of 13 witches.

11. The first Mrs. Arrowsmith LEORA
“Arrowsmith” is a 1925 novel by Sinclair Lewis. It recounts the life of doctor and scientist Martin Arrowsmith. At one point, Arrowsmith is sent to study the bubonic plague on an island in the Caribbean. While on the island, Martin’s wife Leora contracts the disease and dies.

12. Kind of wrench ALLEN
The Allen wrench (or “Allen key”, as we call it back in Ireland) is a successful brand of hex wrench that was trademarked in 1943 by the Allen Manufacturing Company of Hartford , Connecticut. However, the hex wrench had in fact been around since the mid-to-late 1800s.

19. Like some picture cards ONE-EYED
There is a poker game that’s popular in home games in which one-eyed jacks are chosen as wild cards. The one-eyed jacks are the Jack of Spades and the Jack of Hearts.

25. Land with a red, white and green flag IRAN
The Iranian flag in use today was adopted in 1980, a product of the Iranian Revolution. The flag is a tricolor composed of horizontal bands of green, white and red. Included in the green and red bands are the repeated words “Allahu Akbar”, which translates as “God is great”.

27. Point sets, in math LOCI
In mathematics, a locus is the set of all points that satisfy a given requirement. For example, the locus called a circle is the set of all points equidistant from a single point.

28. Very small pharmaceutical mail order? PILL TO POST (from “pillar to post”)
The phrase “from pillar to post” usually means from one bad situation to another. It is suggested that the expression derives from medieval times, and that the “post” is a whipping post and the “pillar” is a pillory. A punishment of the day might be to whip a person at a whipping post and then put the poor soul on display in the pillory to receive ridicule from a crowd. A pillory was device constructed for such a purpose, a post with a split crossbeam and holes through which the hands and head could be held.

33. Court ATRIUM
In modern architecture an atrium (plural “atria” or “atriums”) is a large open space usually in the center of a building and extending upwards to the roof. The original atrium was an open court in the center of an Ancient Roman house. One could access most of the enclosed rooms of the house from the atrium.

36. Sour fruit SLOE
The sloe is the fruit of the blackthorn bush, and is the main flavoring ingredient in sloe gin.

43. Hill building CAPITOL
The United States Capitol is home to the US Congress, and sits on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. It was Pierre Charles L’Enfant who laid out the nation’s new capital city. L’Enfant’s plans called for a “Congress House” as home for the legislative branch of the government. It was Thomas Jefferson who insisted that the name be changed to “Capitol”.

48. Counter man GEIGER
Hans Geiger was the German physicist who co-invented the Geiger counter, which detects and measures ionizing radiation like alpha and beta particles and gamma rays.

49. It’s a real knockout ETHER
Ethers are a whole class of organic compounds, but in the vernacular “ether” is specifically diethyl ether. Diethyl ether was once very popular as a general anesthetic.

50. String quartet part VIOLA
A string quintet is a musical composition that is written for a string quartet with the addition of an extra instrument. A standard string quartet is made up of two violins, a viola and a cello. The fifth instrument is usually a second viola or cello.

52. Wahine’s greeting ALOHA
“Wahine” is the word for “woman”, in both Hawaiian and Maori.

55. Two-time Atlantic crosser of 1493 NINA
The ship used by Christopher Columbus that we know as the Niña was actually the nickname of a ship actually called the Santa Clara. The nickname “Niña” probably came from the name of her owner, Juan Niña of Moguer.

57. DVR option TIVO
TiVo was introduced in 1999 and was the world’s first commercially successful DVR (Digital Video Recorder).

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. What Rudolph used to be called NAMES
6. One in a wild bunch? OAT
9. Beatles song syllables OB-LA
13. Pilot AVIATE
15. Baseball letters RHE
16. Baseball’s Hershiser OREL
17. Baseball champs of 2013 RED SOX
18. “What do you take me for?” I’M NO FOOL
20. Easy mark with a sob story? CRIER PIGEON (from “carrier pigeon”)
22. Trail terminus: Abbr. ORE
23. British pop singer Lewis LEONA
24. Expressionist painter LeRoy NEIMAN
26. Habitat for some ibexes ALPS
29. Coke go-with RUM
30. Balkan native SERB
31. Part of a team observation NO I
32. Fine groove STRIA
34. Salt’s output YARNS
37. It’s seldom total ECLIPSE
39. Digital filer’s target TOENAIL
41. 1960 Olympic gold medalist Rudolph WILMA
42. Cape Cod catch SCROD
44. Intl. commerce group WTO
45. One-third of a WWII film TORA
47. Wind often affects it AIM
48. Joy GLEE
49. Calls to mind EVOKES
51. Some future fliers PUPAE
53. Hint TIP
54. Shirt that hardly covers anything? MINIMALIST T (from “minimalist art”)
59. Didn’t ride HOOFED IT
61. Hamper HOGTIE
62. “… we fat all / creatures __ to fat us”: Hamlet ELSE
63. Roger or Brian of music ENO
64. Bundle up on the farm SHEAVE
65. Speedometer reading, e.g. RATE
66. Margarita condimento SAL
67. Noble gas, and a homophonic hint to how this puzzle’s four longest answers are formed ARGON

Down
1. Buster? NARC
2. Affirm as true AVER
3. Noon in Paris MIDI
4. Stands by an artist EASELS
5. Put away STORE
6. Folding craft ORIGAMI
7. Woeful words AH ME
8. Dovetail sections TENONS
9. Punch line? OOF!
10. Ruckus at a coven? BROOM BRAWL (from “barroom brawl”)
11. The first Mrs. Arrowsmith LEORA
12. Kind of wrench ALLEN
14. International commerce components EXPORTS
19. Like some picture cards ONE-EYED
21. Gets used (to) INURES
25. Land with a red, white and green flag IRAN
26. Over ANEW
27. Point sets, in math LOCI
28. Very small pharmaceutical mail order? PILL TO POST (from “pillar to post”)
32. “I’ve heard enough” SPARE ME
33. Court ATRIUM
35. Time in ads NITE
36. Sour fruit SLOE
38. “No real damage” I’M OK
40. Marching band lows OOMPAHS
43. Hill building CAPITOL
46. Dramatic devices ASIDES
48. Counter man GEIGER
49. It’s a real knockout ETHER
50. String quartet part VIOLA
52. Wahine’s greeting ALOHA
55. Two-time Atlantic crosser of 1493 NINA
56. __ party STAG
57. DVR option TIVO
58. Adult, at one time TEEN
60. Commission FEE

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