LA Times Crossword Answers 1 Dec 14, Monday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
6. Condescending one SNOB
Back in the 1780s, a “snob” was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.

13. Andrea __: sunken ocean liner DORIA
The SS Andrea Doria was an Italian ocean liner with the home port of Genoa. She was named after Andrea Doria, a 16th-century general from the city. As always seems to be the case with ships that go down, the Andrea Doria was the pride of the fleet and was deemed to be the biggest, fastest and safest of Italy’s ships in the fifties. Her end came in 1956 when she collided with the MS Stockholm off the coast of Nantucket Island. Such was the damage to the side of the vessel that she quickly and severely listed to starboard, rendering half her lifeboats unusable. Nonetheless, 1,660 crew and passengers were rescued by vessels that came to her aid. Only 46 lives were lost, mainly in the collision itself. The Andrea Doria capsized and sank eleven hours after the collision.

15. Actor Stephen REA
Stephen Rea is an Irish actor from Belfast. Rea’s most successful role was Fergus in 1992’s “The Crying Game”, for which performance he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. In “The Crying Game”, Fergus was a member of the IRA. In real life, Rea was married to IRA bomber and hunger striker Dolours Price at the time he made the movie.

“The Crying Game” is a fascinating film that made quite a splash when it was released in 1992. Although it was set in Ireland and the UK, it didn’t do well in cinemas in either country yet made a lot of money over here in the US. I think the politics of the movie were a bit raw for Irish and UK audiences back then. It’s an unusual plot, blending Irish political issues with some raw sexuality questions. I won’t tell you about the “surprise scene”, just in case you haven’t seen it and want to do so.

20. North African port city ALGIERS
Algeria is a huge country, the second largest in Africa (only Sudan is larger), and the largest country on the Mediterranean. The capital of Algeria is Algiers, and the country takes its name from the city.

25. Cavs, on scoreboards CLE
The Cleveland Cavaliers are the professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavs joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1970. The team plays at the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland, a facility that the locals refer to as “the Q”.

27. Figure skating jump AXEL
An Axel is a forward take-off jump in figure skating. It was first performed by Norwegian Axel Paulsen at the 1882 World Figure Skating championships.

28. NYC airport named for a mayor LGA
When traveling to New York City (NYC), one might fly into LaGuardia Airport (LGA).

Fiorello La Guardia was the Mayor of New York from 1934 to 1945, racking up three full terms in office. The famous airport that bears La Guardia’s name was built at his urging, stemming from an incident that took place while he was in office. He was taking a TWA flight to “New York” and was outraged when the plane landed at Newark Airport, in the state of New Jersey. The Mayor demanded that the flight take off again and land at a small airport in Brooklyn. A gaggle of press reporters joined him on the short hop and he gave them a story, urging New Yorkers to support the construction of a new commercial airport within the city’s limits. The new airport, in Queens, opened in 1939 as New York Municipal, often called “LaGuardia” as a nickname. The airport was officially relabeled as “LaGuardia” in 1947.

33. Hotelier Helmsley LEONA
Leona Helmsley was a high-rolling real estate investor and hotel operator in New York City. She was convicted of income tax evasion in 1989 and sentenced to 16 years in jail. At her trial a witness quoted her as saying “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” No wonder she was known as the Queen of Mean …

38. *”This space available,” in a Pennysaver box PLACE YOUR AD HERE (giving “place kick”)
Today “pennysaver” is a generic term for a free periodical issued in a community, offering items and services for sale. The original “Pennysaver” was published in 1948 in Ohio by Horace Greeley and Ralph St. Denny.

44. Dog who reveals the Wizard TOTO
Toto is Dorothy’s dog in the film “The Wizard of Oz”. Toto was played by a dog called Terry, but Terry’s name was soon changed to Toto in real life, due to the success of the film.

46. Netherlands airline KLM
The acronym KLM stands for “Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij”, which translates from Dutch as “Royal Aviation Company”. KLM is the flag carrier for the Netherlands, and is the oldest airline in the world still operating with its original name. It was founded in 1919. KLM merged with Air France in 2004.

48. Procedure: Abbr. SYS
System (sys.)

49. Stamp sellers, briefly POS
Post office (P.O.)

51. Ancient scrolls PAPYRI
The papyrus plant was one commonly found in the Nile Delta of Europe. The pith of the plant was used to make a thick, paper-like material on which one could write. This writing material, which became known as papyrus, became a competitor for the most popular writing surface of the day known as parchment, which was made from animal skins.

53. Takes over, like termites INFESTS
Termites are insects that are somewhat unique in that they can digest cellulose (as can ruminants such as cattle). Because of this diet, they cause a lot of trouble for human populations by feeding on wood in man-made structures.

56. Baseball’s “Iron Man” Ripken CAL
Cal Ripken played his entire, 20-year professional baseball career for the Baltimore Orioles. Ripken was known as the “Iron Man” because he showed up for work every day, come rain or shine. He played 2,632 straight games, blowing past the previous 2,130-game record held by Lou Gehrig.

62. Pitcher’s stat ERA
Earned run average (ERA)

64. Accord automaker HONDA
Honda started manufacturing its Accord model in Marysville, Ohio in 1982, making the Accord the first Japanese car to be produced in the US. The Accord was the best-selling Japanese car in America from 1982 to 1997, and 1989 was the first import to become the best-selling car in the US.

65. Brain scan, for short EEG
An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of electrical activity caused by the firing of neurons within the brain. The EEG might be used to diagnose epilepsy, or perhaps to determine if a patient is “brain dead”.

Down
1. ASAP cousin PDQ
Pretty darn quick (PDQ)

2. Baseball’s “Iron Horse” Gehrig LOU
Baseball legend Lou Gehrig was known as a powerhouse. He was a big hitter and just kept on playing. Gehrig broke the record for the most consecutive number of games played, and he stills holds the record for the most career grand slams. His durability earned him the nickname “The Iron Horse”. Sadly, he died in 1941 at 37-years-old suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an illness we now call “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”.

3. Tycoon Onassis ARI
Aristotle Onassis was born to a successful Greek shipping entrepreneur in Smyrna in modern-day Turkey. However, his family lost its fortune during WWI and so Aristotle worked with his father to build up a new business empire centered on the importation of tobacco. In 1957, Aristotle founded the Greek national airline, what is today called Olympic Air, and he also got into the business of shipping oil around the world. He married Athina Livanos in 1946, the daughter of a wealthy shipping magnate. They couple had two children together, with one being the famous Christina Onassis. Livanos divorced Onassis on discovering him in bed with the opera singer Maria Callas. Onassis ended his affair with Callas in order to marry Jackie Kennedy in 1968.

4. Five-cent coin NICKEL
The 5-cent American coin known as a nickel is actually made up of 75% copper and 25% nickel. The first nickel was introduced in 1866, and was named the “Shield nickel” due to the shield design on the front of the coin. The current design is the Jefferson nickel, which was introduced in 1938.

7. Himalayan country NEPAL
Nepal lies to the northeast of India. Today, the state is known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. In 2008, the Communist Party of Nepal won the country’s general election. Soon after, the Assembly voted to change the form of government, moving away from a monarchy and creating a secular republic.

The magnificent Himalaya range of mountains in Asia takes its name from the Sanskrit for “abode of snow”. Geographically, the Himalayas separate the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau to the north.

9. Arctic hazard BERG
An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that is floating freely after having broken off from a glacier or ice shelf. Out use of “iceberg” comes from the Dutch word for the same phenomenon “ijsberg”, which translates literally as “ice mountain”.

14. Back-to-school mo. SEP
The month of September is the ninth month in our year, although the name “September” comes from the Latin word “septum” meaning “seventh”. September was the seventh month in the Roman calendar until the year 46 BC when Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar. The Julian system moved the start of the year from March 1st to January 1st, and shifting September to the ninth month. The Gregorian calendar that we use today was introduced in 1582.

17. Lipton shelfmate TETLEY
Tetley was founded by Joseph Tetley in Yorkshire in 1837. Joseph and his brother used to sell salt door-to-door from a pack horse and started to distribute tea the same way. They became so successful selling tea that they relocated to London. Notably, Tetley’s was the first company to introduce tea bags in the UK, back in 1953.

Sir Thomas Lipton was a grocer in Glasgow, Scotland. He founded a tea packing company in North America in 1893, in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was very successful as his blends of tea became popular in the US. Despite the Lipton roots in the UK, Lipton black tea isn’t available there, so I’ve always thought of it as an American brand.

21. Basketball Hall of Famer Thomas ISIAH
Isiah Thomas played his whole professional basketball-playing career with the Detroit Pistons, and he is now the head coach with Florida International University’s Golden Panthers. When you’re out shopping for popcorn, keep an eye out for the Dale & Thomas brand, as it’s co-owned by Isiah Thomas.

25. Vancouver NHL team CANUCKS
The Canucks are Vancouver’s professional hockey team, a franchise that joined the National Hockey League in 1970 as an expansion team. “Canuck” is a slang term for “Canadian”.

31. Alleged Iraqi arsenal, for short WMDS
The first recorded use of the term “Weapon of Mass Destruction” (WMD) was in 1937. The words were used by Cosmo Gordon Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, in reference to the bombardment of Guernica in Spain during the Spanish Civil War by the German Luftwaffe. He said, “Who can think without horror of what another widespread war would mean, waged as it would be with all the new weapons of mass destruction?”

33. “__ we forget” LEST
“Lest we forget” is an oft-quoted phrase, one that comes from a poem by Rudyard Kipling called “Recessional”. Kipling wrote the piece on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 and used it to express sadness at the waning of the British Empire. The phrase “lest we forget” is used in this context, a warning that the empire will decline. Ever since WWI we’ve been using the words on memorials as a plea not forget the sacrifices made by others in the past.

34. Sea divided by shrinkage ARAL
The Aral Sea is a great example of how man can have a devastating effect on his environment. In the early sixties the Aral Sea covered 68,000 square miles of Central Asia. Soviet Union irrigation projects drained the lake to such an extent that today the total area is less than 7,000 square miles, with 90% of the lake now completely dry. Sad …

37. FC Barcelona soccer star Lionel MESSI
Lionel Messi is a soccer player from Argentina. Messi was awarded FIFA’s Ballon d’Or (Golden Ball) award from 2009 to 2013. The Ballon d’Or is presented to the player who is considered the best in the world in the prior year.

45. Kia sedan OPTIMA
The Kia Optima was sold for a while in Canada and Europe as the Kia Magentis.

47. “Sleepless in Seattle” director Nora EPHRON
Nora Ephron had many talents, including writing film scripts and novels. Many of the movies that she wrote, she also directed. These would include some of my favorite movies of all time like “Sleepless in Seattle”, “You’ve Got Mail” and most recently, the wonderful “Julie & Julia”. And, did you know that Nora Ephron’s second marriage was to journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame? She wrote an autobiographical novel based on her life with Bernstein, dealing in particular with Bernstein’s affair with the daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

“Sleepless in Seattle” is a lovely romantic comedy directed and co-written by Nora Ephron, released in 1993. The film’s storyline is based on the excellent 1957 movie “An Affair to Remember”, and there are numerous direct references to the Cary Grant/Deborah Kerr classic throughout the “remake”. The lead roles in “Sleepless …” are played by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

50. “The Odd Couple” slob OSCAR
“The Odd Couple” is a play by the wonderfully talented Neil Simon first performed on Broadway, in 1965. This great play was adapted for the big screen in 1968, famously starring Jack Lemmon (as Felix Unger, the neat-freak) and Walter Matthau (as Oscar Madison, the slob). The success of the play and the film gave rise to an excellent television sitcom that ran from 1970-1975, starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. In 1985, Neil Simon even went so far as to adapt the play for an all-female cast, renaming it “The Female Odd Couple”. I’d like to see that one …

52. Japanese beer brand ASAHI
Asahi is a beer, and the name of the brewery that produces it. “Asahi” is Japanese for “morning sun”. Asahi introduced a “dry beer” in 1987, igniting a craze that rocketed the brewery to the number one spot in terms of beer production in Japan, with Sapporo close behind.

53. Slurpee alternative ICEE
Icee and Slurpee are brand names of those slushy drinks. Ugh …

55. Broadband letters DSL
The acronym “DSL” originally stood for Digital Subscriber Loop, but is now accepted to mean (Asymmetric) Digital Subscriber Line. DSL is the technology that allows Internet service be delivered down the same telephone line as voice service, by separating the two into different frequency signals.

59. Blasting material TNT
TNT is an abbreviation for trinitrotoluene. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

60. Tokyo, long ago EDO
Edo is the former name of the Japanese city of Tokyo. Edo was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime that ruled from 1603 until 1868. The shogun lived in the magnificent Edo castle. Some parts of the original castle remain and today’s Tokyo Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan, was built on its grounds.

61. Like unprocessed data RAW
Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Greenhouse growth PLANT
6. Condescending one SNOB
10. Take wing FLY
13. Andrea __: sunken ocean liner DORIA
14. “So I was wrong!” SUE ME!
15. Actor Stephen REA
16. *Mark of a hothead QUICK TEMPER (giving “quick kick”)
18. “A mouse!” EEK!
19. Remain fresh KEEP
20. North African port city ALGIERS
22. Regret one’s 32-Acrosses REPENT
25. Cavs, on scoreboards CLE
26. Blurt out SAY
27. Figure skating jump AXEL
28. NYC airport named for a mayor LGA
30. One of two matching beds TWIN
32. Admission in a confessional SIN
33. Hotelier Helmsley LEONA
35. Lady’s title MADAM
38. *”This space available,” in a Pennysaver box PLACE YOUR AD HERE (giving “place kick”)
41. Peddles SELLS
42. Fight mementos SCARS
43. Crunched muscles ABS
44. Dog who reveals the Wizard TOTO
46. Netherlands airline KLM
47. Those, to Pedro ESOS
48. Procedure: Abbr. SYS
49. Stamp sellers, briefly POS
51. Ancient scrolls PAPYRI
53. Takes over, like termites INFESTS
55. Menu item DISH
56. Baseball’s “Iron Man” Ripken CAL
57. Foot-operated mechanism on a motorcycle, and what the first word in each answer to a starred clue can be KICK STARTER
62. Pitcher’s stat ERA
63. Online letter EMAIL
64. Accord automaker HONDA
65. Brain scan, for short EEG
66. Put on notice WARN
67. Being hauled to the garage IN TOW

Down
1. ASAP cousin PDQ
2. Baseball’s “Iron Horse” Gehrig LOU
3. Tycoon Onassis ARI
4. Five-cent coin NICKEL
5. Unavailable TAKEN
6. Total SUM
7. Himalayan country NEPAL
8. Brunch order OMELET
9. Arctic hazard BERG
10. *Relaxed FREE AND EASY (giving “free kick”)
11. Suspicious LEERY
12. Chews the fat YAKS
14. Back-to-school mo. SEP
17. Lipton shelfmate TETLEY
21. Basketball Hall of Famer Thomas ISIAH
22. Filing tools RASPS
23. Formally banish EXILE
24. *A football referee may throw one PENALTY FLAG (giving “penalty kick”)
25. Vancouver NHL team CANUCKS
29. Baby talk syllables GOOS
31. Alleged Iraqi arsenal, for short WMDS
33. “__ we forget” LEST
34. Sea divided by shrinkage ARAL
36. Leafy recess ARBOR
37. FC Barcelona soccer star Lionel MESSI
39. Nearby CLOSE
40. Deodorant spot ARMPIT
45. Kia sedan OPTIMA
47. “Sleepless in Seattle” director Nora EPHRON
48. Game trap SNARE
50. “The Odd Couple” slob OSCAR
52. Japanese beer brand ASAHI
53. Slurpee alternative ICEE
54. Distort SKEW
55. Broadband letters DSL
58. Family KIN
59. Blasting material TNT
60. Tokyo, long ago EDO
61. Like unprocessed data RAW

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