LA Times Crossword Answers 12 Mar 15, Thursday

Share today’s solution with a friend:
FacebookTwitterGoogleEmail

Quicklink
Jump to a complete list of today’s clues and answers

CROSSWORD SETTER: Alex Miller
THEME: March Madness … each of today’s themed answers starts with the letters MARCH rearranged … it’s MADNESS!

54A. Annual sports event that begins with Selection Sunday on 3/15 … or, cryptically, a hint to the scrambled word found at the starts of 20-, 29-, 37- and 45-Across MARCH MADNESS

20A. Russian composer and piano virtuoso RACHMANINOFF
29A. Café breakfast order HAM CREPE
37A. TV fantasy about three magical sisters CHARMED
45A. Den piece ARMCHAIR

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 8m 00s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Atkins no-no CARB
The eating of relatively few carbohydrates is central to the diet proposed by Robert Atkins. Atkins first laid out the principles behind the Atkins diet in a research paper published in 1958 in the “Journal of the American Medical Association”. He popularized his diet starting in 1972 with his book “Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution”.

9. Brothers Grimm creature FAIRY
The Brothers Grimm (Jacob and Wilhelm) were two German academics noted for collecting and publishing folk tales. Among the tales in their marvelous collection are “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Sleeping Beauty” and “Cinderella”.

14. Old apple spray ALAR
The chemical name for Alar, a plant growth regulator and color enhancer, is daminozide. Alar was primarily used on apples but was withdrawn from the market when it was linked to cancer.

17. Elizabeth of “Lone Star” PENA
Elizabeth Peña was an actress of Cuban descent born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. The role I most remember her in was the Colombian mother of Gloria Pritchett on the sitcom “Modern Family”.

19. Experimental blast N-TEST
Nuclear test (N-test)

20. Russian composer and piano virtuoso RACHMANINOFF
Sergei Rachmaninoff was a Russian pianist and composer active in the late Romantic Era. Rachmaninoff emigrated from Russia in 1917, driven away by the Russian Revolution. He eventually settled in the US where he toured as a pianist for many years. Rachmaninoff’s best-known works are probably his “Piano Concerto No. 1” and his “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini”.

23. Related compounds ISOMERS
In the world of chemistry, isomers are two compounds with chemical formula i.e. the same atomic constituents, but with a slightly different arrangement of the atoms relative to each other. The differing arrangement of atoms often leads to different chemical properties.

24. Gap HIATUS
A “hiatus” is a break or opening in a material object. “Hiatus” is Latin for “opening”.

28. Italian roads STRADE
“Strada” (plural “strade”) is Italian for “road”.

29. Café breakfast order HAM CREPE
“Crêpe” is the French word for “pancake”.

37. TV fantasy about three magical sisters CHARMED
“Charmed” is a popular fantasy TV series that originally ran from 1998 until 2006 on the WB. It’s about three good witches known as the Charmed Ones who protect innocents from evil beings. The title characters are played by Shannen Doherty, Piper Halliwell and Alyssa Milano.

43. Absolute ruler DESPOT
A “despot” is a ruler with absolute power, often one who wields that power oppressively. “Despot” is an old French term from the 14th century, ultimately derived from the Greek “despotes” meaning “master of a household, absolute ruler”.

54. Annual sports event that begins with Selection Sunday on 3/15 … or, cryptically, a hint to the scrambled word found at the starts of 20-, 29-, 37- and 45-Across MARCH MADNESS
March Madness is the name given to (among others) the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship, held in spring each year.

64. Stax Records genre SOUL
Stax Records was founded in 1957 as Satellite Records. The biggest star to record with Stax was the great Otis Redding.

66. Milk sources for some Tibetan cheese YAKS
The English word “yak” is an Anglicized version of the Tibetan name for the male of the species. Yak milk is much prized in the Tibetan culture. It is made into cheese and butter, and the butter is used to make a tea that is consumed in great volume by Tibetans. The butter is also used as a fuel in lamps, and during festivals the butter is even sculpted into religious icons.

Down
1. Crop pants CAPRIS
Capri pants first became popular on the island of Capri, apparently. They were invented in Europe in 1948, but only became stylish in the US in the sixties. Mary Tyler Moore often wore Capri pants on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and to some extent she sparked a fashion trend. After a lull in the seventies and eighties there was a resurgence in sales after Uma Thurman wore them (and danced in them) in “Pulp Fiction”. Can’t stand the look of them myself …

2. Orioles’ div. AL EAST
The Baltimore Orioles are one of the eight charter teams of MLB’s American League, so the franchise dates back to 1901. Prior to 1901, the team has roots in the Minor League Milwaukee Brewers, and indeed entered the American League as the Brewers. In 1902 the Brewers moved to St. Louis and became the Browns. The team didn’t fare well in St. Louis, so when it finally relocated to Baltimore in the early fifties the team changed its name completely, to the Baltimore Orioles. The owners so badly wanted a fresh start that they traded 17 old Browns players with the New York Yankees. The trade didn’t help the team’s performance on the field in those early days, but it did help distance the new team from its past.

5. Childhood home of Jesus NAZARETH
Nazareth is a large city in northern Israel. The New Testament describes Nazareth as the childhood home of Jesus.

7. Actress Hatcher TERI
Teri Hatcher’s most famous role these days is the Susan Mayer character in “Desperate Housewives”. I’ve never seen more than a few minutes of “Housewives” but I do know Teri Hatcher as a Bond girl, as she appeared in “Tomorrow Never Dies”.

8. Nerve cell transmitter AXON
A nerve cell is more correctly called a neuron, and the long nerve fiber that is part of a neuron is called the axon.

9. Story you might find on MuggleNet.com, briefly FANFIC
“Fan fiction” (also “fanfic”) is fiction created by fans of an original work that uses characters from that original work.

MuggleNet is a fansite devoted to the “Harry Potter” series of books and films. In the word of “Harry Potter”, a “muggle” is someone born without any magical ability, and who wasn’t born into the magical world. There is also a “Squib”, who is someone born to magical parents but who has no magical abilities.

10. Myrmecologist’s subject ANT FARM
Myrmecology is the study of ants. The term derives from the Greek “myrmex” meaning “ant”.

11. ’50s political nickname IKE
“I Like Ike” was a political slogan that originated with the grassroots movement to get Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for president in the 1952 presidential election.

12. Jekyll creator’s monogram RLS
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish author, famous for his novels “Treasure Island”, “Kidnapped” and “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was first published in 1886. There are many tales surrounding the writing of the story including one that the author wrote the basic tale in just three to six days, and spent a few weeks simply refining it. Allegedly, Stevenson’s use of cocaine stimulated his creative juices during those few days of writing.

22. Resistance unit OHM
The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

25. Lions, Tigers or Bears TEAM
The Detroit Lions are the NFL team that plays home games at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. The team was founded way back in 1929 as the Portsmouth Spartans from Portsmouth, Ohio. The Spartans joined the NFL during the Great Depression as other franchises collapsed. However, the Spartans couldn’t command a large enough gate in Portsmouth so the team was sold and relocated to Detroit in 1934.

The origins of the Detroit Tigers baseball team’s nickname seems a little unclear. One story is that it was taken from the Detroit Light Guard military unit who were known as “The Tigers”. The Light Guard fought with distinction during the Civil War and in the Spanish-American War. Sure enough, when the Detroit baseball team went into the Majors they were formally given permission to use “The Tigers” name by the Detroit Light Guard.

The Chicago Bears were founded in Decatur, Illinois in 1919 and moved to Chicago in 1921. The Bears are one of only two franchises in the NFL that were around at the time of the NFL’s founding (the other is the Arizona Cardinals, who were also based in Chicago in 1921).

26. Fancy coif UPDO
A “coif” is a hairdo. The term comes from an old French term “coife”, a skull-cap that was worn under a helmet back in the late 13th century.

30. Dough dispensers, for short ATMS
Automated teller machine (ATM)

32. Dry riverbed WADI
“Wadi” is an Arabic term referring to a valley, or perhaps a (mostly) dry riverbed. In English we might call this a wash, or in Spanish an “arroyo”.

38. Dorothy Parker’s “Excuse my dust” and others EPITAPHS
Our word “epitaph” ultimately comes from the Greek “epitaphion”, the word for a funeral oration.

Dorothy Parker was a poet and satirist, a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. After the famed meetings at the Algonquin Hotel ceased, Parker headed to Hollywood where she became a successful screenwriter, earning two Oscar nominations. However she ended up on the Hollywood blacklist for being involved in left-wing politics. When Parker passed away in 1967, her body was cremated. Her ashes remained unclaimed for over twenty years before the NAACP took charge of them and placed them in a specially-designed memorial garden outside their headquarters in Baltimore. The plaque reads:

Here lie the ashes of Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) humorist, writer, critic. Defender of human and civil rights. For her epitaph she suggested, ‘Excuse my dust’. This memorial garden is dedicated to her noble spirit which celebrated the oneness of humankind and to the bonds of everlasting friendship between black and Jewish people.

39. Like the Taj Mahal DOMED
The most famous mausoleum in the world has to be the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. The Taj Mahal was built after the death of the third wife of Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal (hence the name of the mausoleum). The poor woman died in childbirth delivering the couple’s 14th child.

42. Bagel topping SCHMEAR
The word “schmear” comes from the Yiddish word “shmir” meaning “spread”. The phrase “the whole schmear” is a relatively recent one, dating back to around 1969 and coming from the world of business.

The bagel was invented in the Polish city of Kraków in the 16th century. Bagels were brought to this country by Jewish immigrants from Poland who mainly established homes in and around New York City.

47. JFK info ARR
Arrival time (arr.)

51. Fords that never got going EDSELS
The Edsel brand of automobile was named for Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford. Sadly, the name “Edsel” has become synonymous with “failure”, which was no fault of Edsel himself who had died several years before the Edsel line was introduced.

55. French Open surface CLAY
There are four different surfaces used for playing tennis competitively:

– Clay courts (used for the French Open)
– Hard courts (used for the US Open and the Australian Open)
– Grass courts (used for Wimbledon)
– Carpet courts

56. Bat mitzvah dance HORA
The hora is a circle dance that originated in the Balkans. It was brought to Israel by Romanian settlers, and is often performed to traditional, Israeli folk songs. The hora (also horah) is a regular sight at Jewish weddings.

A Jewish girl becomes a Bat Mitzvah at 12 years of age, the age at which she becomes responsible for her actions. Boys become Bar Mitzvahs at 13. The terms translate into English as daughter and son of the commandments.

57. “The Big Bang Theory” network CBS
“The Big Bang Theory” is very clever sitcom aired by CBS since 2007. “The Big Bang Theory” theme song was specially commissioned for the show, and was composed and is sung by Canadian band Barenaked Ladies. The theme song was released in 2007 as a single and is featured on a Barenaked Ladies greatest hits album.

58. Author Rand AYN
Ayn Rand was the pen name of Russian-American novelist Alisa Rosenbaum. Rand’s two best known works are her novels “The Fountainhead” published in 1943 and “Atlas Shrugged” in 1957. Back in 1951, Rand moved from Los Angeles to New York City. Soon after, she gathered a group of admirers around her with whom she discussed philosophy and shared drafts of her magnum opus, “Atlas Shrugged”. This group called itself “The Collective”, and one of the founding members was none other than future Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan.

Share today’s solution with a friend:
FacebookTwitterGoogleEmail

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Atkins no-no CARB
5. “__ bad idea” NOT A
9. Brothers Grimm creature FAIRY
14. Old apple spray ALAR
15. Pinnacle APEX
16. Painful turning point? ANKLE
17. Elizabeth of “Lone Star” PENA
18. Nothing ZERO
19. Experimental blast N-TEST
20. Russian composer and piano virtuoso RACHMANINOFF
23. Related compounds ISOMERS
24. Gap HIATUS
28. Italian roads STRADE
29. Café breakfast order HAM CREPE
31. Birdbrain NITWIT
33. Arrived just in time for MADE
34. Reservoir creator DAM
37. TV fantasy about three magical sisters CHARMED
40. Delivery person? MOM
41. Some Persians RUGS
43. Absolute ruler DESPOT
45. Den piece ARMCHAIR
48. Arrival announcement I’M HERE
52. Deduce GATHER
53. Manned the helm STEERED
54. Annual sports event that begins with Selection Sunday on 3/15 … or, cryptically, a hint to the scrambled word found at the starts of 20-, 29-, 37- and 45-Across MARCH MADNESS
57. Provide a spread for CATER
60. Script “Q” feature LOOP
61. In the past ONCE
62. Scenic route, perhaps BYWAY
63. Curvature ARCH
64. Stax Records genre SOUL
65. Sleep soundly? SNORE
66. Milk sources for some Tibetan cheese YAKS
67. Milk sources for some Greek cheese EWES

Down
1. Crop pants CAPRIS
2. Orioles’ div. AL EAST
3. Venom RANCOR
4. Hindu priest BRAHMAN
5. Childhood home of Jesus NAZARETH
6. Makes the first move OPENS
7. Actress Hatcher TERI
8. Nerve cell transmitter AXON
9. Story you might find on MuggleNet.com, briefly FANFIC
10. Myrmecologist’s subject ANT FARM
11. ’50s political nickname IKE
12. Jekyll creator’s monogram RLS
13. However YET
21. Doc MEDIC
22. Resistance unit OHM
25. Lions, Tigers or Bears TEAM
26. Fancy coif UPDO
27. Come off as SEEM
29. Personnel employee HIRER
30. Dough dispensers, for short ATMS
32. Dry riverbed WADI
34. Pull with effort DRAG
35. Special something AURA
36. Co. runners MGMT
38. Dorothy Parker’s “Excuse my dust” and others EPITAPHS
39. Like the Taj Mahal DOMED
42. Bagel topping SCHMEAR
44. Precisely, after “on” THE NOSE
46. Town crier’s cry HEAR YE!
47. JFK info ARR
49. Prior to today, poetically ERE NOW
50. Save RESCUE
51. Fords that never got going EDSELS
53. Usually stained work garb SMOCK
55. French Open surface CLAY
56. Bat mitzvah dance HORA
57. “The Big Bang Theory” network CBS
58. Author Rand AYN
59. Seesaw need TWO

Return to top of page

9 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 12 Mar 15, Thursday”

  1. Thought it would be easy since I got the theme, totally. But I had to Google PENA, and couldn't shake the Persian "cat" off the RUG.

  2. I find that when one's brain goes awry for some unexplained reason, say for instance like this morning when I put in "March of Dimes" instead of "March Madness" for the answer to 54 Across, it slows down the puzzle solution effort pretty severely. Double Doh!

    Hope all my kindred solvers have a great day and I'll see you back here tomorrow most likely…

  3. Hi everyone. I found the puzzle difficult and couldn't get the theme at all. I thought Rachmaninoff was a basketball team from some arcane russian college that I had never heard of …

    As a former chemist, ( Hi, Bill – ) I find Isomers as an answer to 'related compounds' tenuous. They are identical molecules, much as fraternal twins, with a stereoscopic difference. Related compounds would be aldehydes, phenols, halides even certain proteins.

    I learnt and remember Ohm's law only next to Boyle's law ( on the behavior of gases – ). There is no truth to the suggestion that Omaha (Nebraska) is named after the ubiquitous Dr. Ohm. Also, it is not true that Om-aha is the last religious chant made by the unfortunate cattle in the stockyards before their eventual preparation to be served on the table …. 😉

    I am now in the midst of reading Dorothy Parker's best short story,'Big Blonde', which won the O. henry award.

    I am totally tone deaf, and music is my bugbear. I remember the name Rachmaninoff only because his name is so difficult to pronounce. But somehow he reminds me of Pookie. ( Hi, Pookie !)

    Have a nice day , all.

  4. Well… I actually liked the grid. Lots of words I'd never seen here before. But the theme is a real groaner for me.

    I had some funny false starts today. "Nutjob" preceded NITWIT, "tyrant" turned into DESPOT, and "hula" for HORA.

    Lots of Seinfeld references today. Elaine once wrote a FANFIX of Murphy Brown, and Candice Bergen actually guest starred on the show. Which was quite startling, since her show aired on a different network. George wore a RUG(s) given to him by John Lovitz, I'll stop there. Enjoy!

  5. Forgot to mention: your top 5 March Madness teams are currently Kentucky, Duke, Virginia, Villanova and Arizona. Use that info wisely. 😉

  6. Hi Bill and Hi to you too, Vidwan!
    Gee, Rachmaninoff and I in the same boat? Thanks for the compliment.
    This one gave me fits.
    I got my epitaphs and epithets mixed up and spelled EPITATHS.
    Tricky clues today.
    Waiting for the plumber. Something is leaking under the house.

  7. Late to the party today. I can't tell you how many times I've struggled with a puzzle only to come here and see how easy it was for everyone else.

    For whatever reason this one fell into place for me quickly. I think there's an element of luck there in terms of the setter touching on your knowledge base.

    Been cloudy and dreary in Houston now for about 6 months solid it feels like. Yikes

  8. Another Thursday completed, and I'm starting to think I'm getting good at this puzzle stuff! I liked today's grid, tho I totally guessed on RACHMANINOFF. I won't count on any success for Friday, however.
    And to all a good weekend!

  9. Love Dorothy Parker! A story I love about her is
    when she was on a game show and asked to use the
    word, horticulture in a sentence. She said
    "You can lead a whore to culture, but you cannot
    make her think!". Quick wit, that one!

Comments are closed.