LA Times Crossword Answers 27 Jan 15, Tuesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Ed Sessa
THEME: Three Stooges … each of today’s three themed answers ends with a synonym of STOOGE:

57A. Classic comedy team, with “The” … and what the last words of 20-, 38- and 44-Across comprise THREE STOOGES

20A. Rock used for hammering, e.g. STONE-AGE TOOL
38A. Shari Lewis’ Lamb Chop, memorably SOCK PUPPET
44A. First piece moved in chess, often QUEEN’S PAWN

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 55s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Many an Amman man ARAB
Amman is the capital city of Jordan, and is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world. Amman has been occupied by a number of different civilizations over the centuries, including the Greeks who called it Philadelphia, a name retained by the Romans when they occupied the city just after 100 AD.

5. Grab, as ice cubes TONG
A pair of tongs is a tool with a scissor-like hinge used to pick up things, like meat cooking on a barbecue grill or ice from an ice bucket.

9. Seuss character who “speaks for the trees” LORAX
“The Lorax” is a children’s book written by Dr. Seuss. It is an allegorical work questioning the problems created by industrialization, and in particular its impact on the environment. At one point in the story, the Lorax “speaks for the trees, for the trees have no tongues”. “The Lorax” was adapted into an animated film that was released in 2012, with Danny DeVito voicing the title character.

18. Flat-topped elevation MESA
“Mesa” is the Spanish for “table”, which gives to our English usage of “mesa” to describe a geographic feature.

19. Consumerist Ralph NADER
Ralph Nader has run as a third-party candidate for the office of President of the United States four times now, in every election from 1996 to 2008. Nader’s name was first first linked with the presidential race in 1971, when the famous Dr. Benjamin Spock offered to stand aside as candidate in the 1972 race if Nader would agree to run, but he declined.

20. Rock used for hammering, e.g. STONE-AGE TOOL
Ancient societies can be classified by the “three-age system”, which depends on the prevalence of materials used to make tools. The three ages are:

– The Stone Age
– The Bronze Age
– The Iron Age

The actual dates defined by each age depend on the society, as the timing of the transition from the use of one material to another varied around the globe.

24. NBC skit show SNL
“Saturday Night Live” (SNL)

25. Neighbor of Can. USA
The “International Boundary” (the official name) that separates the United States and Canada is the longest international boundary in the world. It is over 5,500 miles long, including the 1,500-mile section that separates Alaska and Canada.

31. Sneaker brand KEDS
Keds is a brand name of athletic shoe first introduced in 1916 by US Rubber. The shoe was originally marketed as a rubber-soled, canvas-topped sneaker.

38. Shari Lewis’ Lamb Chop, memorably SOCK PUPPET
Shari Lewis was the original puppeteer behind the PBS children’s show “Lamb Chop”. After Shari Lewis died in 1998, her daughter Mallory took over the role of puppeteer on the show.

40. Media workers’ org. AFTRA
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) was founded in 1937 as AFRA. AFTRA merged with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 2012, forming SAG-AFTRA.

42. Mentalist Geller URI
Uri Geller’s most famous performance is perhaps his uncomfortable failure on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson in 1973. Carson “hi-jacked” Geller on live television by providing him with spoons to bend and watches to start, none of which had been available to Geller before the show aired. Clever!

43. Home of baseball’s Marlins MIAMI
The Miami Marlins baseball team started out life in 1993 as the Florida Marlins. The franchise changed its name to the Miami Marlins in 2011 when it relocated to the newly constructed Marlins Park.

44. First piece moved in chess, often QUEEN’S PAWN
In a game of chess, the queen’s pawn is the one located in front of the queen in the opening position.

In the game of chess, the pawns are the weakest pieces on the board. A pawn that can make it to the opposite of the board can be “promoted” to a piece of choice, usually a queen. Using promotion of pawns, it is possible for a player to have two or more queens on the board at one time. However, standard chess sets come with only one queen per side, so a captured rook is often used as the second queen by placing it on the board upside down.

49. __ Piper PIED
The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin dates back to medieval times. Recently there have been suggestions that the story is rooted in some truth, that the town of Hamelin did in fact lose many of its children, perhaps to plague. The suggestion is that the tale is an allegory.

52. Blog VIPs EDS
Many folks who visit this website regard it as just that, a website. That is true, but more correctly it is referred to as a blog, as I make regular posts (actually daily posts) which then occupy the “front page” of the site. The blog entries are in reverse chronological order, and one can just look back day-by-day, reading older and older posts. “Blog” is a contraction of the phrase “web log”.

55. Arctic sea bird AUK
Auks are penguin-like sea birds that live in colder northern waters including the Arctic. Like penguins, auks are great swimmers, but unlike penguins, auks can fly.

57. Classic comedy team, with “The” … and what the last words of 20-, 38- and 44-Across comprise THREE STOOGES
If you’ve seen a few of the films starring “The Three Stooges” you’ll have noticed that the line up changed over the years. The original trio was made up of Moe and Shemp Howard (two brothers) and Larry Fine (a good friend of the Howards). This line up was usually known as “Moe, Larry and Shemp”. Then Curly Howard replaced his brother when Shemp quit the act, creating the most famous trio, “Moe, Larry And Curly”. Shemp returned when Curly had a debilitating stroke in 1946, and Shemp stayed with the troupe until he died in 1955. Shemp was replaced by Joe Besser, and then “Curly-Joe” DeRita. When Larry Fine had a stroke in 1970, it effectively marked the end of the act.

63. Mexican mom MADRE
In Spanish, a mother (madre) is a member of the family (la familia).

67. Agatha Christie’s title DAME
The title of Dame in the British system of honors is the female equivalent to “Sir”, as used to address a knight. In days of old, the wife of a knight was given the title of Dame, but since the 17th century the wife of a knight has been called “Lady”. So now anyone with the title of Dame has earned the honor in her own right and not through marriage.

Not only did Agatha Christie write a fabulous collection of murder-mystery stories, she also wrote romances, but under the pen name Mary Westmacott. I’ve read almost all of Christie’s 66 detective novels, but I must admit, not one of her romance novels.

69. Letter-named thoroughfares in Bklyn. AVES
There are a whole slew of avenues in a section of Brooklyn that are named with letters. They go from Avenue A through to Avenue Z.

70. Soprano Gluck ALMA
Alma Gluck was the stage name of Romanian-born American soprano Reba Feinsohn. Gluck’s second marriage was to violinist Efrem Zimbalist. Gluck and Zimbalist’s son was Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. the noted actor and star of television’s “77 Sunset Strip”.

71. Gossipmonger YENTA
Yenta (also “Yente”) is actually a female Yiddish name. In Yiddish theater “yenta” came to mean a busybody.

Down
2. Littlest of a litter RUNT
Back around 1500. a runt was an old or decayed tree stump, and by the early 1600s “runt” was being used to describe animals that were similarly old and decayed. Ultimately “runt” came to mean the smallest and often sickest in a litter.

4. Showy jewelry BLING
Bling-bling is the name given to all the shiny stuff sported by rap stars in particular i.e. the jewelry, watches, metallic cell phones, even gold caps on the teeth. The term comes from the supposed “bling” sound caused by light striking a shiny metal surface.

5. Fare steamed in corn husks TAMALES
A tamale is a traditional dish from Central America composed of a starchy dough that is steamed or boiled in a wrapper made of leaves. The dough is called masa, and can include many different ingredients including meat, cheese fruit and vegetables.

6. Ten C-notes ONE G
One G, one grand, one thousand dollars …

9. Kitchen flooring LINOLEUM
“Lino” (short for “linoleum”) was originally made by coating canvas with solidified linseed oil. The product’s inventor, Englishman Frederick Walton, give it the name “linoleum” from “linum” and “oleum”, the Latin for “linen” and “oil”.

13. Gen-__: boomer’s kid, usually XER
The term Generation X originated in the UK where it was the name of a book by Jane Deverson. Her book detailed the results of a study of British youths in 1964, contrasting their lifestyle to those of previous generations. It was Canadian author Douglas Coupland who was responsible for popularizing the term, with his more successful publication “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”. By the latest accepted definition, Gen-Xers were born between 1961 and 1981.

22. Cleaning up after the mess? ON KP
KP is a US military slang term that stands for either “kitchen police” or “kitchen patrol”.

“Mess” first came into English about 1300 and described the list of food needed for a meal, from the Old French word “mes” meaning a portion of food or a course at a meal. This usage in English evolved into “mess” meaning a jumbled mass of anything from the concept of “mixed food”. At the same time, the original usage in the sense of a food for a meal surfaced again in the military in the 1500s when a “mess” was a communal eating place.

29. Check from the IRS REFUND
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was set up during the Civil War to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.

30. Films featuring chaps in chaps
The term “oater” that is used for a western movie comes from the number of horses seen, as horses love oats!

“Chap” is an informal term for “lad, fellow”, especially in England. The term derives from “chapman”, an obsolete word meaning “purchaser” or “trader”.

Chaps are leather leggings that are worn when riding a horse. The purpose of the garment is provide protection for the legs when riding through bushy terrain, perhaps a heavy thicket. The name “chaps” comes from the Spanish name for the leggings, which is “chaparejos” or “chaparreras”. The Spanish term comes from chaparro, a Spanish word that can be used for a low-growing thicket.

35. Protestant denom. EPIS
The Episcopal Church in the US is a branch of the Anglican Communion, and so is associated with the Church of England. The Episcopal Church is descended from the Church of England’s presence in the American colonies, prior to the American Revolution. The American Anglicans split with mother church, largely because the clergy of the Church of England are required to swear allegiance to the British monarch. Members of the Episcopal Church are known as Episcopalians. “Episcopal” is an adjective and “Episcopalian” is a noun.

39. Fuzzy fruit KIWI
What we call kiwifruit today used to be called a Chinese gooseberry. Marketing folks in the fifties decided to call it a “melonette”, and then New Zealand producers adopted the name “kiwifruit”.

41. Detested thing ANATHEMA
Anathema or bane is a source of persistent annoyance. Anathema is the Latin word for an excommunicated person. Note that “anathema” does not take an article, so we say “he is anathema” rather than “he is an anathema”.

54. Software test versions BETAS
In the world of software development, the first tested issue of a new program is usually called the “alpha” version. Expected to have a lot of bugs that need to be fixed, the alpha release is usually distributed to a small number of testers. After reported bugs have been eliminated, the refined version is called a “beta” and is released to a wider audience, but with the program clearly labeled as “beta”. The users generally check functionality and report further bugs that are encountered. The beta version feeds into a release candidate, the version that is tested just prior to the software being sold into the market, bug-free. Yeah, right …

56. George Eastman’s camera KODAK
George Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company, named after the Kodak camera that he had invented four years earlier. He came up with the name of Kodak after careful consideration. Firstly he was a big fan of the letter “K”, calling it “strong, incisive”. He also wanted a word that was short, easy to pronounce and difficult to mispronounce, and a word that was clearly unique with no prior associations. “Kodak” fit the bill.

58. Whence icicles hang EAVE
“Whence” is a lovely word, with the meaning “from where”.

61. Award for a sitcom EMMY
The Emmy Awards are the television equivalent of the Oscars in the world of film, the Grammy Awards in music and the Tony Awards for the stage. Emmy Awards are presented throughout the year, depending on the sector of television being honored. The most famous of these ceremonies are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards. The distinctive name of “Emmy” is a softened version of the word “immy”, the nickname given to the video camera tubes found in old television cameras.

62. Red and Coral SEAS
The Red Sea (sometimes called the Arabian Gulf) is a stretch of water lying between Africa and Asia. The Gulf of Suez (and the Suez Canal) lies to north, and the Gulf of Aden to the south. According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, God parted the Red Sea to allow Moses lead the Israelites from Egypt. Historically, the Red Sea was known as Mare Mecca (Sea of Mecca) and “Sinus Arabicus (Gulf of Arabia).

The Coral Sea is part of the South Pacific Ocean, lying off the northeast coast of Australia and home to the renowned Great Barrier Reef.

63. Mother’s Day month MAY
Note the official punctuation in “Mother’s Day”, even though one might think it should be “Mothers’ Day”. President Wilson, and Anna Jarvis who created the tradition, specifically wanted Mother’s Day to honor the mothers within each family and not just “mothers” in general, so they went with the “Mother’s Day” punctuation.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Many an Amman man ARAB
5. Grab, as ice cubes TONG
9. Seuss character who “speaks for the trees” LORAX
14. Ship bottom HULL
15. Auth. unknown ANON
16. Fit to be tied IRATE
17. Opposed to ANTI
18. Flat-topped elevation MESA
19. Consumerist Ralph NADER
20. Rock used for hammering, e.g. STONE-AGE TOOL
23. Mousse kin GEL
24. NBC skit show SNL
25. Neighbor of Can. USA
28. Seasoned veteran PRO
31. Sneaker brand KEDS
34. Sharper, as vision KEENER
36. One that falls in the fall LEAF
38. Shari Lewis’ Lamb Chop, memorably SOCK PUPPET
40. Media workers’ org. AFTRA
42. Mentalist Geller URI
43. Home of baseball’s Marlins MIAMI
44. First piece moved in chess, often QUEEN’S PAWN
47. Takes a load off SITS
48. “Incredible!” UNREAL!
49. __ Piper PIED
51. Half a colon DOT
52. Blog VIPs EDS
53. Bubble bath spot TUB
55. Arctic sea bird AUK
57. Classic comedy team, with “The” … and what the last words of 20-, 38- and 44-Across comprise THREE STOOGES
63. Mexican mom MADRE
66. Wrap for a sprain TAPE
67. Agatha Christie’s title DAME
68. Universal principle AXIOM
69. Letter-named thoroughfares in Bklyn. AVES
70. Soprano Gluck ALMA
71. Gossipmonger YENTA
72. Religious offshoot SECT
73. Ringful on a belt KEYS

Down
1. Triumphant cries AHAS
2. Littlest of a litter RUNT
3. Voice below soprano ALTO
4. Showy jewelry BLING
5. Fare steamed in corn husks TAMALES
6. Ten C-notes ONE G
7. Wine quality NOSE
8. Annoying swarm GNATS
9. Kitchen flooring LINOLEUM
10. Like much early history ORAL
11. “Cool!” RAD!
12. Had a bite ATE
13. Gen-__: boomer’s kid, usually XER
21. Surprised scream EEK!
22. Cleaning up after the mess? ON KP
25. Still owed UNPAID
26. Appear that way SEEM TO
27. Palette user ARTIST
28. Inscribed award PLAQUE
29. Check from the IRS REFUND
30. Films featuring chaps in chaps OATERS
32. Fasten, as buttons DO UP
33. Junkyard metal SCRAP
35. Protestant denom. EPIS
37. Let loose FREE
39. Fuzzy fruit KIWI
41. Detested thing ANATHEMA
45. Insult SLUR
46. Most shipshape NEATEST
50. Lovebirds, e.g. DUO
54. Software test versions BETAS
56. George Eastman’s camera KODAK
57. Easy race pace TROT
58. Whence icicles hang EAVE
59. Building detail, briefly SPEC
60. Big windstorm GALE
61. Award for a sitcom EMMY
62. Red and Coral SEAS
63. Mother’s Day month MAY
64. Bough breaker AXE
65. Racket DIN

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6 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 27 Jan 15, Tuesday”

  1. Easy Tuesday puzzle. As excited as I was about the Three Stooges being the theme (I got that answer first), I was deeply disappointed that Moe Larry and Curly weren't embedded in the other themed answers. oh well. Sigh.

    Willie – I saw your reference to onomatopoeia yesterday, but I just squawked at it…..

    Xers are those born between 1961 and 1981. Boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964. I was born in 1963 so I should get dual citizenship…

    I remember Efrem Zimbalist more from his role in The F.B.I. show. Apparently he was very close to J. Edgar Hoover and Hoover insisted that the show be technically accurate and show FBI agents in the best light possible. Actors who portrayed agents in the show were even required to undergo background checks (presumably in exchange for Hoover's input). In 2009 then head of the FBI Robert Mueller awarded Zimbalist a plaque signifying him as an honorary special agent.

    And most importantly, "Efrem" is the Russian equivalent of "Jeff" so he had that badge of honor to wear as well 🙂

    Best –

  2. Good thing this puzzle was easy enough. Two answers made no sense to me because I thought them each to be one word instead of two. They were ONKP and DOUP. I was shocked when the puzzle became solved with those answers. I always feel a little unfairly tricked when short multiple word answers are used 🙂

  3. The grid was fine for a Tuesday. I've never heard it called a "Queen's" pawn. But I'm not a big on chess, unless it's Chess Records. And AUK was new to me. Is that the origin of Auckland, NZ? 69A – AVES: there's also an area in Manhattan called Alphabet City, where all the streets are named A, B, C, etc..

    Jeff, a little more ono…whatever that word is: Today's NFL Experience in Scottsdale was the BOMB! I had lunch with 3 friends at Nordstrom's Cafe and walked over. Wow, what a spectacle. Tomorrow we're going to the Phoenix Open Pro-Am. And most definitely taking a taxi.

  4. Hi all!
    I didn't like the clue for TONG, and I did what I always do when I'm against a clue: didn't ink it in until the end. So there! I guess I showed this setter! LOL…
    @Bill, so glad you pointed out the reason behind Mother's Day. I always felt the day should be just about my mom…may she rest in peace :'(
    See you all mañana!

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