LA Times Crossword Answers 10 Mar 15, Tuesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: John Lampkin
THEME: Swiss Tale … the ends of today’s themed answers are all words associated with the tale of William Tell, who shot the arrow off his son’s head:

65A. Body support for the end of 57-Across, in a Swiss folk tale suggested by the ends of the answers to starred clues HEAD

20A. *Ornamental flower with clustered blooms SWEET WILLIAM
36A. *Blab about one’s romantic life KISS AND TELL
43A. *Luxury car until the 1930s PIERCE ARROW
57A. *Former PBS science show with a fruit in its title logo NEWTON’S APPLE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 52s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

8. “Frozen” studio DISNEY
“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”.

16. Mercedes-Benz sedan line E-CLASS
The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is a range of executive-size cars. Originally, the “E” stood for “Einspritzmotor”, the German for “fuel injection engine”.

17. Disapproving cries from bleacher “birds” BOOS
At a sports event one might sit in the “bleachers”. “Bleachers” is a particularly American term used to describe the tiered stands that provide seating for spectators. These seats were originally wooden planks, and as they were uncovered they would be “bleached” by the sun, giving them the name we use today. Sometimes the fans using the bleachers might be referred to as “bleacherites”.

I think “bleacher birds” are the more vocal members of the crowd at a sporting event …

18. Prefix with meter ODO-
An odometer measures distance traveled. The word derives from the Greek “hodos” meaning “path” and “metron” meaning “measure”.

19. “I do” setting CHAPEL
The story of Saint Martin of Tours is an interesting one. Martin was a soldier who cut his military cloak in two and gave half to a beggar, who was Christ in disguise. Martin was inspired to convert to Christianity, eventually becoming a bishop in the church. The remaining half of Martin’s military cloak was referred to as a “capella”, Latin for “small cape”. The Frankish kings came to own the cape and carried it into battle with them as a sacred relic. The tent that stored the relic was referred to as the “capella”, and the priests who prayed in the tent were known as “capellini”. These two terms gave rise to our English words “chapel” and “chaplain”.

20. *Ornamental flower with clustered blooms SWEET WILLIAM
“Sweet William” is the common name for the biennial plant Dianthus barbatus. The English name dates back at least to 1596, although the exact origin is unclear. Suggestions are that it is named for either William Shakespeare, Saint William of York, or William the Conqueror.

23. Wall St. index NYSE
The roots of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) go back to 1792 when a group of 24 stock brokers set up the New York Stock & Exchange Board. They did so in an agreement signed under a buttonwood tree outside 68 Wall Street. That document became known as the Buttonwood Agreement.

25. Badlands bovine BISON
There two species of bison left (four species are extinct). We are most familiar with the American bison (commonly called the American buffalo), but there is a also a European bison, sometimes called a “wisent”.

Badlands may be “bad lands” for agriculture, but they can be beautiful. A badlands is an extensive area from which the topsoil has been eroded by wind and water, leaving exposed rock and very little vegetation. One of the most beautiful badlands areas in the US is preserved for the nation as South Dakota’s Badlands National Park.

29. “Green Eggs and Ham” guy SAM
You know, I probably should read a Dr. Seuss book some day. They weren’t big where I grew up. I understand that the character called Sam in the book “Green Eggs and Ham” is also known as “Sam-I-Am”.

31. Marshmallow-filled snack MOONPIE
Marshmallow cream was developed in 1927. Soon after, workers in the coal mines around Chattanooga, Tennessee started dipping graham crackers in marshmallow cream as a snack. Then a local baker jumped on the idea, and came up with a sandwich made with a marshmallow filling between two round graham crackers. His young grandson remarked that the popped bubbles in the marshmallow (from baking) looked like moon craters, and the MoonPie was born. I used to love them as a kid, although we called them “Wagon Wheels” in our part of the world.

41. “Dancing With the Stars” move TWIRL
When I was growing up in the British Isles, there was a surprisingly popular BBC television show featuring professional ballroom dancing called “Come Dancing”. It ran almost every year from 1949 to 1998, and in 2004 the BBC resurrected it with a new twist, adding celebrities to dance with the professionals. The new show, called “Strictly Come Dancing”, is a huge success and has become a worldwide franchise. Over here we watch the American version called “Dancing with the Stars”. It really is fun television …

42. Law school newbie ONE L
“1-L” is a name used in general for first year law students, with “1-L” standing for “first-year law”. Famously, “One L” is an autobiographical book by Scott Turow recounting his first year as a law student at Harvard.

43. *Luxury car until the 1930s PIERCE-ARROW
The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company made vehicles from 1901 until 1939, headquartered in Buffalo, New York. Noted for luxury cars, Pierce-Arrow was selected as the supplier of the first official cars for the White House. President William Howard Taft order two Pierce-Arrows in 1909.

46. Like deadpan humor DRY
The term “deadpan”, slang for an impassive expression, comes from dead (expressionless) and pan (slang for “face”).

54. Comment from Fido WOOF!
“Fido”, the name for many a dog, is Latin for “I trust”.

57. *Former PBS science show with a fruit in its title logo NEWTON’S APPLE
“Newton’s Apple” was a great educational TV show that originally ran on PBS from 1983 to 1998. The show was presented by Ira Flatow, who is currently the host of NPR’s “Science Friday” radio show.

Sir Isaac Newton was one of the most influential people in history, the man who laid the groundwork for all of classical mechanics. The story about an apple falling on his head, inspiring him to formulate his theories about gravity, well that’s not quite true. Newton often told the story about observing an apple falling in his mother’s garden and how this made him acutely aware of the Earth’s gravitational pull. However, he made no mention of the apple hitting him on the head.

61. African desert SAHARA
The name “Sahara” means “greatest desert” in Arabic and it is just that, a great desert covering almost 4 million square miles of Northern Africa. That’s almost the size of the United States.

65. Body support for the end of 57-Across, in a Swiss folk tale suggested by the ends of the answers to starred clues HEAD
Supposedly William Tell came from Uri, a canton in the German part of Switzerland. Altdorf is the capital of Uri and is the city where William Tell shot the apple off his son’s head, at least according to legend.

68. Ireland, in poetry ERIN
“Éire”, is the Irish word for “Ireland”. “Erin” is an anglicized version of “Éire” and actually corresponds to “Éirinn”, the dative case of the noun “Éire”.

69. Sonnet features RHYMES
A sonnet is a short poem with varying rhyming schemes but always with 14 lines. The sonnet form has been around at least since the 13th century. The Shakespearean sonnet is composed of three quatrains (4 lines) and a final couplet (2 lines).

70. 1930s N.L. home run king Mel OTT
At 5′ 9″, Mel Ott weighed just 170 lb (I don’t think he took steroids!) and yet he was the first National League player to hit over 500 home runs. Sadly, Ott died in a car accident in New Orleans in 1958 when he was only 49 years old.

71. __ avis RARA
A “rara avis” is anything that is very rare, and is Latin for “rare bird”.

Down
3. Twaddle HOOEY
“Hooey” is a American slang of unknown origin that is used to mean “nonsense, foolishness”.

“Twaddle” is a trivial talk, and is a word that has been around since the late 1700’s. It probably evolved from the earlier term “twattle” that had the same meaning.

5. Food on the trail CHOW
“Chow” is an American slang term for food that originated in California in the mid-1800s. “Chow” comes from the Chinese pidgin English “chow-chow” meaning “food”.

9. Crane who fled the Headless Horseman ICHABOD
Ichabod Crane is the protagonist in Washington Irving’s short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. It’s thought that Irving “stole” the name from someone he actually knew, a captain in the army called Ichabod B. Crane.

12. Peoria-to-Cincinnati dir. ESE
Peoria is the oldest European settlement in the state of Illinois, having been settled by the French in 1680. The city is famous for being cited as “the average American city”.

Cincinnati, Ohio was the first major city to be founded after the American Revolution, and indeed was the first major inland city to be founded in the whole country. Cincinnati was a boomtown in the 1800s, but it’s growth slowed as the the railroads displaced the steamboats as the major form of transportation. The city was founded in 1788, and was named “Cincinnati” two years later. It was named for the Society of Cincinnati, an organization with the mission to preserve the ideals and fellowship of the officers of Revolutionary War. The society was in turn named for Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. cincinnatus was farmer in ancient Rome who left his land to serve as Consul and then lawful dictator of Rome during a war emergency, before happily handing back power to the Senate after the war was won.

13. French designer’s initials YSL
Yves Saint-Laurent was a French fashion designer, actually born in Algeria. Saint-Laurent started off working as an assistant to Christian Dior at the age of 17. Dior died just four years later, and as a very young man Saint-Laurent was named head of the House of Dior. However, in 1950 Saint-Laurent was conscripted into the French Army and ended up in a military hospital after suffering a mental breakdown from the hazing inflicted on him by his fellow soldiers. His treatment included electroshock therapy and administration of sedatives and psychoactive drugs. He was released from prison, managed to pull his life back together and started his own fashion house. A remarkable story …

22. Hedy of Hollywood LAMARR
Hedy Lamarr was an American actress, originally from Vienna in modern-day Austria. Not only was Lamarr a successful Hollywood performer, during WWII she was the co-inventor of the frequency-hopping spread-spectrum method of transmitting radio signals that is still used to this day in wireless communication. Impressive …

27. Persian Gulf ship OILER
An “oiler” is an oil tanker, an ocean-going vessel used to transport crude oil.

The Persian Gulf is in effect an inland sea although it technically is an offshoot of the Indian Ocean. The outlet from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean is one of the most famous maritime “choke points” in the world: the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world’s supply of petroleum passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

30. Teeny parasites MITES
Mites are tiny arthropods in the arachnid (spider) class. Mites are (annoyingly!) very successful creatures that have adapted to all sorts of habitats, and being so small, they generally pass unnoticed. Ick …

34. Twin Cities suburb EDINA
Edina, Minnesota lies just southwest of Minneapolis. The town takes its name from Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. It was suggested by a Scottish mill owner at the time a new village was being set up in 1888.

35. Like a run-down motel SEEDY
We use the word “seedy” to mean “shabby”. The usage probably arose from the appearance of a flowering plant that has gone to seed.

37. Go after, as a mosquito SWAT AT
“Mosquito” is the Spanish for “little fly”. The female mosquito actually has to have a “blood meal” before she is able to lay her eggs.

38. Elton John’s title SIR
Elton John’s real name is Reginald Dwight. Sir Elton was knighted in 1998, not for his music but for his charitable work. He founded his own Elton John AIDS Foundation back in 1992.

44. Circle of friends COTERIE
A “coterie” is a small group of friends who hang out together, often sharing a common interest. The term comes to us from French where a coterie was an organization of peasants all of whom held land owned by the same feudal lord.

45. H2O, to a toddler WAWA
A water molecule is composed of an oxygen atom with two hydrogen atoms on roughly opposite sides (about a 150-degree angle). So, sometimes the molecule is represented by “HOH”, although more usually it’s “H2O”.

52. Sculpted figure TORSO
“Torso” (plural “torsi” or “torsos”) is an Italian word meaning the “trunk of a statue”, a word that we imported into English.

55. “The Marriage of Figaro,” e.g. OPERA
Figaro is the central character in at least two operas: “The Barber of Seville” by Rossini, and “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart. The two storylines are based on plays by Pierre Beaumarchais, with one basically being a sequel to the other.

59. Agitated state SNIT
The exact etymology of “snit”, meaning “fit of temper”, isn’t really known. The term was first used in print in the play “Kiss the Boys Goodbye” by Clare Booth Luce, which dates back to the 1930s and is set in the American South.

60. Funny Dame EDNA
Dame Edna Everage is the outrageous character created and played by Australian comedian Barry Humphries. I saw him/her perform live in a San Francisco theater, and what a great show it was …

61. Big __, California SUR
Big Sur is a lovely part of the California Coast, south of Monterey and Carmel. The name “Big Sur” comes from the original Spanish description of the area as “el sur grande” meaning “the big south”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Cavern effect ECHO
5. Cornfield call CAW
8. “Frozen” studio DISNEY
14. Amorphous mass BLOB
15. “Say again?” HUH?
16. Mercedes-Benz sedan line E-CLASS
17. Disapproving cries from bleacher “birds” BOOS
18. Prefix with meter ODO-
19. “I do” setting CHAPEL
20. *Ornamental flower with clustered blooms SWEET WILLIAM
23. Wall St. index NYSE
24. Steeped brew TEA
25. Badlands bovine BISON
29. “Green Eggs and Ham” guy SAM
31. Marshmallow-filled snack MOONPIE
33. “I do” YES
36. *Blab about one’s romantic life KISS AND TELL
39. Brainchild IDEA
41. “Dancing With the Stars” move TWIRL
42. Law school newbie ONE L
43. *Luxury car until the 1930s PIERCE-ARROW
46. Like deadpan humor DRY
47. Bringing up the rear ENDMOST
48. Tail movement WAG
50. “Speak up!” SAY IT!
51. Had a meal ATE
54. Comment from Fido WOOF!
57. *Former PBS science show with a fruit in its title logo NEWTON’S APPLE
61. African desert SAHARA
64. Beat it RAN
65. Body support for the end of 57-Across, in a Swiss folk tale suggested by the ends of the answers to starred clues HEAD
66. Online form entry USER ID
67. __-fi SCI
68. Ireland, in poetry ERIN
69. Sonnet features RHYMES
70. 1930s N.L. home run king Mel OTT
71. __ avis RARA

Down
1. Flows back EBBS
2. Kids’ party performer CLOWN
3. Twaddle HOOEY
4. Think constantly about something OBSESS
5. Food on the trail CHOW
6. Review of books? AUDIT
7. Unbroken WHOLE
8. Tenth: Pref. DECI-
9. Crane who fled the Headless Horseman ICHABOD
10. Hit very hard SLAM INTO
11. Snooze NAP
12. Peoria-to-Cincinnati dir. ESE
13. French designer’s initials YSL
21. Shipbuilding wood TEAK
22. Hedy of Hollywood LAMARR
26. Use up cash SPEND
27. Persian Gulf ship OILER
28. Nice __: prude NELLY
30. Teeny parasites MITES
32. At the minimum setting ON LOW
33. “Goodness me!” YIPES!
34. Twin Cities suburb EDINA
35. Like a run-down motel SEEDY
37. Go after, as a mosquito SWAT AT
38. Elton John’s title SIR
40. Linked while walking, as friends ARM IN ARM
44. Circle of friends COTERIE
45. H2O, to a toddler WAWA
49. Burrowing rodent GOPHER
52. Sculpted figure TORSO
53. Put into law ENACT
55. “The Marriage of Figaro,” e.g. OPERA
56. Knack FLAIR
58. Rolls of money WADS
59. Agitated state SNIT
60. Funny Dame EDNA
61. Big __, California SUR
62. Hearth remains ASH
63. “Yo!” HEY!

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