LA Times Crossword Answers 30 Sep 16, Friday




LA Times Crossword Solution 30 Sep 16







Constructed by: Joseph Groat

Edited by: Rich Norris

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

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Theme: Five Senses

Each of today’s themed clues is one of the five senses:

  • 17A…Sight..POINT OF INTEREST
  • 23A…Hearing..COURT INQUIRY
  • 39A…Smell..MINUSCULE AMOUNT
  • 51A…Touch..IPOD COMPUTER
  • 61A…Taste..ART CRITIC’S ASSET

Bill’s time: 14m 16s

Bill’s errors: 0




Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across

1…__ salad..COBB

Ty Cobb’s first cousin, Robert H. Cobb, owned the Brown Derby chain of restaurants. One of his regular customers was the famous Sid Grauman, who ran Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Late one night, Grauman asked for a snack, and Cobb came up with a chopped salad simply made from ingredients he happened to have in the refrigerator. Grauman liked it so much that continued to request it, and the Cobb salad was born.

5…Maddux who won four consecutive Cy Young Awards..GREG

Baseball pitcher Greg Maddux won the Cy Young Award for the four consecutive years of 1992 through 1995, a record that wasn’t matched until Randy Johnson did the same thing in 1999 through 2002.

9…Prominent feature of toondom’s Droopy Dog..JOWLS

The cartoon dog named Droopy was created in 1943 by Tex Avery for MGM. He is so called because he has a droopy-looking face.

15…Dunkirk dream..REVE

Dunkirk is in the very north of France, on the coast just a few miles from the border with Belgium. The beaches and harbor of Dunkirk were used for a massive evacuation of British forces early in WWII after they were surrounded by the German army. Over 330,000 mainly British and French combatants were picked up by 900 vessels that made repeated journeys over several days.

16…2003 LPGA Rookie of the Year..OCHOA

Lorena Ochoa is a retired professional golfer from Mexico who was ranked as the number one female golfer in the world from 2007 to 2010.

20…Cuttlefish pigment..SEPIA

Sepia is that lovely rich, brown-grey color so common in old photographs. “Sepia” is the Latinized version of the Greek word for cuttlefish, as sepia pigment is derived from the ink sac of the cuttlefish.The “sepia tone” of old photographs is not the result of deterioration over time. Rather, it is the result of a deliberate preservation process which converts the metallic silver in the photographic image to a more stable silver sulfide. Prints that have been sepia-toned can last in excess of 150 years.

Cuttlefish are marine animals that are related to squids and octopodes. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, and are molluscs, not fish.

21…”Homeland” org…CIA

“Homeland” is a psychological drama shown on Showtime about a CIA officer who is convinced that a certain US Marine is a threat to the security of the United States. The show is based on a series from Israeli television called “Hatufim” (Prisoners of War”). I saw the first series of this show and highly recommend it …

22…Wyo. neighbor..NEB

Nebraska gets its name from the Platte River which flows through the state. “Nebraska” is an anglicized version of Otoe or Omaha words meaning “flat water”.

28…Acting sister of Lynn..VANESSA

The English actress Vanessa Redgrave is part of a predominant acting family. Her father was the great Michael Redgrave, and her sister the accomplished Lynn Redgrave. Vanessa’s daughter was Natasha Richardson, the actress and wife of Liam Neeson who died after a skiing accident in 2009.

31…Big biceps, at the gym..GUNS

“Guns” is a slang term for very strong arms or biceps.

The biceps muscle is made up of two bundles of muscle, both of which terminate at the same point near the elbow. The heads of the bundles terminate at different points on the scapula or shoulder blade. “Biceps” is Latin for “two-headed”.

32…Form 1040 calc…AGI

Adjusted gross income (AGI)

Here in the US we can choose one of three main forms to file our tax returns. Form 1040 is known as the “long form”. Form 1040A is called the “short form”, and can be used by taxpayers with taxable income below $100,000 who don’t itemize deduction. Form 1040EZ is an even simpler version of the 1040, and can be used by those with taxable income less than $100,000 who take the standard deduction and who also have no dependents. Form 1040 was originally created just for tax returns from 1913, 1914 and 1915, but it’s a form that just keeps on giving, or should I say “taking” …?

43…Burns art?..POESY

Robert Burns is a cultural icon in Scotland and for Scots around the world. As a poet, Burns was a pioneer in the Romantic movement in the second half of the 18th century. One of his most famous works is the poem “Auld Lang Syne”, which has been set to the tune of a traditional Scottish folk song and is used to celebrate the New Year in the English-speaking world.

45…Ltr. holder..ENV

An envelope (env.) might hold a letter (ltr.).

46…Macy’s department..MEN’S

The original Macy’s store was opened by Rowland Hussey Macy in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1851. This store, and several others that Macy opened, all failed. Macy picked himself up though, and started over again in New York City. Those early New York stores all focused on the sale of dry goods, but added departments quickly as the clientele grew. The Macy’s “star” logo has been around since the company was first established. Macy chose the star because it mimicked the star tattoo that he got as a teenager when he was working on a whaling ship out of Nantucket.

48…Sierra __..NEVADAS

The American Sierra Nevada range lies in California and Nevada. The Spanish Sierra Nevada range is in Andalusia, with the name meaning “snowy range” in Spanish.

51…Touch..IPOD COMPUTER

The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant and gaming console with a WiFi capability. Essentially, I think it’s a stripped-down version of an iPhone.

56…__ Park Lincoln of “Knots Landing”..LAR

Actress Lar Park Lincoln’s real name is Laurie Jill Park. Lincoln’s first big role was playing femme fatale Linda Fairgate on “Knots Landing”, a gig that lasted for five years.

66…Reno-__ Intl. Airport..TAHOE

Reno-Tahoe International Airport is located a few miles from downtown Reno, Nevada. Reno’s International Air Transport Association (IATA) airport code is RNO.

68…Goddess of discord..ERIS

In Greek mythology, Eris is the goddess of discord. The name “Eris” is derived from the Greek word for strife, and translates into Latin as “Discordia”. In Greek her counterpart is Harmonia, and in the world of the Roman gods, Concordia. The largest dwarf planet in our solar system is called Eris, named after the goddess.

69…Cape Ann’s county..ESSEX

Cape Ann is 30 miles north of Boston and is on the northernmost edge of Massachusetts Bay. The Cape was first mapped by the explorer John Smith. Early in his adventurous life Smith had been captured and enslaved by the Ottoman Empire. His “owner” in his days of slavery was a woman called Tragabigzanda, and apparently the slave and owner fell in love. Smith originally called Cape Tragabigzanda in her memory, but King Charles I changed the name to Cape Ann in honor of his own mother, Anne of Denmark.

Down

1…Crosswords are often solved in them..CAPS

One of the tips given by expert crossword solvers is to fill in the grid using lowercase letters when aiming for speed. I experimented with lowercase vs. uppercase solving myself, and was surprised at the difference it made to the time required to solve easier puzzles.

2…Black wind..OBOE

The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”. When you hear an orchestra tuning before a performance you’ll note (pun intended!) that the oboe starts off the process by playing an “A”. The rest of the musicians in turn tune to that oboe’s “A”.

3…Observation in a tower..BLIP

Scientists have been using radio waves to detect the presence of objects since the late 1800s, but it was the demands of WWII that accelerated the practical application of the technology. The British called their system RDF standing for Range and Direction Finding. The system used by the US Navy was called Radio Detection And Ranging, which was shortened to the acronym RADAR.

8…Powerful lamp contents..GENII

“Genii” is an accepted plural of two related words: “genius” and “genie”.

The “genie” in the bottle takes his or her name from “djinn”. “Djinns” were various spirits considered lesser than angels, with people exhibiting unsavory characteristics said to be possessed by djinn. When the book “The Thousand and One Nights” was translated into French, the word “djinn” was transformed into the existing word “génie”, because of the similarity in sound and the related spiritual meaning. This “génie” from the Arabian tale became confused with the Latin-derived “genius”, a guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at birth. Purely as a result of that mistranslation the word genie has come to mean the “djinn” that pops out of the bottle. A little hard to follow, I know, but still quite interesting …

9…Average beverage?..JOE

It seems that no one really knows why we refer to coffee as “joe”, but we’ve been doing so since early in WWII.

10…Text-scanning technology, briefly..OCR

Optical character recognition (OCR) is the conversion of scanned typewritten text into digital text. Basically OCR is turning a photograph into text document.

11…Like some conditionally ordered stock..WHEN-ISSUED

“When, as and if issued” trading of securities is usually referred to as “when-issued” trading. Basically, trading is taking place ahead of a security prior to it actually being issued.

18…__ Ski Valley, site of Kachina Peak..TAOS

Kachina Peak is highest point in Taos Ski Valley, the alpine ski resort in New Mexico.

24…Camp Pendleton letters..USMC

Camp Pendleton is a large Marine Corps base located on the Southern California coast in San Diego County. The base was opened during WWII, in 1942, and was named for Marine Corps Major General Joseph Henry Pendleton, who passed away that same year after 40 years of service.

25…”The Phantom of the Opera” role..RAOUL

In Gaston Leroux’s novel “The Phantom of the Opera”, the young Christine Daaé is obsessively admired by Erik, the “phantom” who lives below the Paris Opera House. Christine is also pursued by her childhood friend Raoul, Viscount of Chagny.

26…Esse __ videri: North Carolina motto..QUAM

The North Carolina motto “Esse quam videri” translates from Latin as “to be, rather than to seem to be”.

28…Siren..VAMP

A “vamp” (short for vampire) is a seductive woman. The term was first used in reference to the sultry performance of actress Theda Bara in the 1915 film “A Fool There Was”. The movie’s title is a quotation from Rudyard Kipling’s 1897 poem “The Vampire”. Bara’s role was positioned as a “vampire”, a woman out to seduce a man, launching the use of “vamp” as an alternative term for a “femme fatale”.

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were seductive bird-women who lured men to their deaths with their song. When Odysseus sailed closed to the island home of the Sirens he wanted to hear their voices, but in safety. He had his men plug their ears with beeswax and then ordered them to tie him to the mast and not to free him until they were safe. On hearing their song Odysseus begged to be let loose, but the sailors just tightened his bonds and and the whole crew sailed away unharmed. We sometimes use the term “siren” today to describe a seductively charming woman.

29…Currency exchange fee..AGIO

The term “agio” derives from the Italian “aggio” meaning “exchange rate, discount, premium”. Most often, the agio is defined as the difference between the actual exchange rate and the nominal exchange rate for two currencies. That difference is mainly made up of the service fee for making the exchange.

34…A.L. Central team..CLE

The Cleveland baseball franchise started out in 1869 as the Forest Citys named after Forest City, the nickname for Cleveland. After a number of transitions, in 1914 the team took on the name “Indians”. The media came up with name “Indians” after being asked for suggestions by the team owners. “Indians” was inspired by the successful Boston team of the day, the Boston Braves.

35…He played Kevin in “The Devil’s Advocate”..KEANU

“The Devil’s Advocate” is a 1997 film based on a novel of the same name by Andrew Neiderman. The movie is a legal drama starring Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. Al Pacino’s character is named John Milton, after the author of the epic poem “Paradise Lost”.

37…Lombardy Castle city..ENNA

The city of Enna sits very high up in the hills of Sicily, overlooking the whole island below. Enna is the capital of the province that bears its name, which is the highest province in the whole of Italy.

38…Off-rd. rides..ATVS

All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

41…Four-fifths of a pop band?..-SYNC

NSYNC was a boy band from Orlando, Florida that was formed in 1995. The name of the group came from a comment by the mother of band member Justin Timberlake, who said the boys voices sounded “in sync”. But, it’s also true that the letters of the name NSYNC are the last letters of the given names of the five band members:

  • Justin Timberlake
  • Chris Kirkpatrick
  • Joey Fatone
  • Lance “Lansten” Bass
  • JC Chasez

42…Adopt-__.com: humane online gp…A-PET

Adopt-a-Pet.com is a non-profit website that maintains a website of adoptable pets from over 12,000 pet shelters across North America.

47…Songs for singles..SOLI

“Soli” (the plural of “solo”) are pieces of music performed by one artist, whereas “tutti” are pieces performed by all of the artists.

49…Chevy named for a star..VEGA

The Chevrolet Vega is a small car that was produced by GM in the seventies. The Vega was much lauded at its launch but was plagued by problems with its engineering, reliability and safety.

Vega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra. Vega (along with Altair and Deneb from other constellations) is also part of the group of three stars that is called the Summer Triangle. Vega is the star at the right-angle of this triangle.

52…Law office workers..PARAS

A paralegal (sometimes just “para”) is someone who is trained in legal matters sufficiently to assist a lawyer. A paralegal cannot engage in the practice of law and must be supervised by a qualified lawyer.

58…Car sticker letters..MSRP

Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP)

59…Prime minister before Rabin..MEIR

Golda Meir was known as the “Iron Lady” when she was Prime Minister of Israel, long before that sobriquet came to be associated with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Golda Meir was born Golda Mabovitch in Kiev (in modern-day Ukraine), and when she was a young girl she moved with her family to the United States and settled in Milwaukee. As a teenager she relocated to Denver where she met and married Morris Meyerson, at the age of 19. She and her husband joined a kibbutz in Palestine in 1921, when she was in her twenties. Meir had been active in politics in the US, and continued her political work in Palestine. She was very influential during WWII, and played a leading role in negotiations after the war leading to the setting up of the state of Israel. By the time she was called on to lead the country, Meir had already retired, citing exhaustion and ill health. But serve she did, and led Israel during turbulent times (e.g. the massacre at the Munich Olympics, and the Yom Kippur War). She eventually resigned in 1974, saying that was what the people wanted.

Yitzhak Rabin was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, and the first Prime Minister to have been born in the relatively young state of Israel. Rabin was a signatory of the Oslo Accords in 1993, along with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, and US President Bill Clinton. Sadly, this led to his death as he was assassinated two years later by a right-wing radical who opposed the Accords.

60…”Whoever you are, find whatever you’re into” website..ETSY

Etsy.com is an e-commerce website where you can buy and sell the kind of items that you might find at a craft fair.

62…Iowa campus..COE

Coe College is a private school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa that was founded in 1851. Coe is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.

63…T. __..REX

The Tyrannosaurus rex (usually written T. rex) was a spectacular looking dinosaur. “Tyrannosaurus” comes from the Greek words “tyrannos” (tyrant) and “sauros” (lizard), and the “rex” is of course Latin for “king”. They were big boys, measuring 42 feet long and 13 feet tall at the hips, and weighing 7.5 tons.

65…Jun. gown wearers..SRS

Seniors (srs.) might wear graduation gowns in June (Jun.).

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Complete List of Clues and Answers

Across

1…__ salad..COBB

5…Maddux who won four consecutive Cy Young Awards..GREG

9…Prominent feature of toondom’s Droopy Dog..JOWLS

14…Efficient..ABLE

15…Dunkirk dream..REVE

16…2003 LPGA Rookie of the Year..OCHOA

17…Sight..POINT OF INTEREST

20…Cuttlefish pigment..SEPIA

21…”Homeland” org…CIA

22…Wyo. neighbor..NEB

23…Hearing..COURT INQUIRY

28…Acting sister of Lynn..VANESSA

31…Big biceps, at the gym..GUNS

32…Form 1040 calc…AGI

33…Like law school trials..MOCK

36…Befuddled..AT SEA

39…Smell..MINUSCULE AMOUNT

43…Burns art?..POESY

44…Omission in logic..LEAP

45…Ltr. holder..ENV

46…Macy’s department..MEN’S

48…Sierra __..NEVADAS

51…Touch..IPOD COMPUTER

55…Led..RAN

56…__ Park Lincoln of “Knots Landing”..LAR

57…Playgroup demand..GIMME!

61…Taste..ART CRITIC’S ASSET

66…Reno-__ Intl. Airport..TAHOE

67…Magnate..CZAR

68…Goddess of discord..ERIS

69…Cape Ann’s county..ESSEX

70…Bottom lines..HEMS

71…Energetic..SPRY

Down

1…Crosswords are often solved in them..CAPS

2…Black wind..OBOE

3…Observation in a tower..BLIP

4…Playgroup warning..BE NICE!

5…Garden product word..GRO

6…Call the game..REF

7…Throw out..EVICT

8…Powerful lamp contents..GENII

9…Average beverage?..JOE

10…Text-scanning technology, briefly..OCR

11…Like some conditionally ordered stock..WHEN-ISSUED

12…Mr. Wrong?..LOSER

13…Didn’t act..SAT BY

18…__ Ski Valley, site of Kachina Peak..TAOS

19…Sharpness..TANG

24…Camp Pendleton letters..USMC

25…”The Phantom of the Opera” role..RAOUL

26…Esse __ videri: North Carolina motto..QUAM

27…Biblical preposition..UNTO

28…Siren..VAMP

29…Currency exchange fee..AGIO

30…Three quarters..NINE MONTHS

34…A.L. Central team..CLE

35…He played Kevin in “The Devil’s Advocate”..KEANU

37…Lombardy Castle city..ENNA

38…Off-rd. rides..ATVS

40…Discounted, perhaps..USED

41…Four-fifths of a pop band?..-SYNC

42…Adopt-__.com: humane online gp…A-PET

47…Songs for singles..SOLI

49…Chevy named for a star..VEGA

50…Pops up..ARISES

51…Steamed..IRATE

52…Law office workers..PARAS

53…Contest..MATCH

54…Contest lure..PRIZE

58…Car sticker letters..MSRP

59…Prime minister before Rabin..MEIR

60…”Whoever you are, find whatever you’re into” website..ETSY

62…Iowa campus..COE

63…T. __..REX

64…Pic taker..CAM

65…Jun. gown wearers..SRS

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13 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 30 Sep 16, Friday”

  1. 20:21, no errors, iPad. I agree that the cluing for this one was quite deceptive; I muddled through it with a surprising number of weird guesses that happened to be correct. “Smell” versus MINUSCULE AMOUNT, for example: I sort of get it, but … hmmm … I can’t seem to create a reasonable sentence in which you can substitute one for the other. Still … I enjoyed the puzzle … and that’s the main thing … 🙂

    I’d never heard of Droopy until now, but he and I seem to have been created in the same year … and, looking in the mirror, it would seem that that’s not the only thing we have in common … 🙂

  2. What I thought was a very easy week of puzzles in the LA Times grew fangs today. A lot I didn’t know plus a lot of interesting cluing (I’m being kind here), plus a lot of starting in the wrong direction = DNF. I ultimately had to look up a few things to get myself straightened out. I finished, but it was definitely aided. The theme helped but not enough. Agree that MINUSCULE AMOUNT is pushing the envelope at best.

    Even after reading the blog, I had to look up to see that REVE is dream in French. 7D I kept wanting to put “egest” rather than EVICT, sums before HEMS, Iris before ERIS. I had a few others as well.

    Chevy named for a star – I had Nova before VEGA. Do they even make Novas anymore? I heard a story they had to change the name for the hispanic market because “no va” of course means doesn’t go. That story is apocryphal. I don’t know if any name change actually happened or not, but it’s a funny story regardless.

    Best –

  3. It was a grind, but got this done in the end. I was certain about half way through that I would never finish successfully but I kept staring and thinking and it finally got done. Hope everyone has a good gateway to the weekend…

  4. Blah. I could only echo pretty much what everyone else
    posted. Not a “challenging” puzzle — they’re fun. This was a clunkily clued slog. (And again with the ETSY today!)

  5. Bad day here. Even when I saw the answers, I really didn’t care! Joseph Groat, I will pass on every time from now on. Not fun, not clever……etc., etc. KK

  6. I had a tough time today,…. got nowhere, and then some. Such a relief and some vicarious, abiding, pleasure that some of you experts, also suffered along the way. ( I guess, that means, I’m not totally stupid …. yet ).

    I forgot to post yesterday, what with catching up of all matters, mail and all. I had some droll items I wanted to note, but got caught up with reading about the challenging life of Edith Piaf.

    Pookie, I’m so sorry you are so diasappointed, but keep the faith. Tomorrow is another day.

    Jeff, I had a NOVA, and that was a wonderful car, lasted 9 years, with no tuneup, but eventually fell to pieces because her skin rusted all over and out. The story, about the No Va meaning ‘No go’ in spanish is all BS per Jeeves. For one thing, it is the wrong tense. ( I personally don’t know Spanish, but believe that it is so, from what I have been told.) Too bad, GM stopped making cars like that.

    When flying from Newark to CLE, I met a 88 yr old man, and his old-enough, GF or wife, who were both solving crosswords, in the plane. They were sitting directly infront of me, so I peeked between the seats. He was doing the NY Times and she was doing the Wall St. Journal. And both in ink or rather, ball pen!!!! Restored some of my faith in american seniors. Also 2 of the three ‘returning’ United crew members, behind me, were also solving crosswords,… mostly USA today. The third ‘returning’ stewardess, across the aisle, was wearing a rather short micro-mini dress, very revealing …. so I had to avoid looking at her, and never found out what she was upto.
    However, I did pitch Bill’s blog to the 88 yr old couple. They promised to read it.
    Talking about ball point pens, I hope you all caught the Google doodle yesterday, about Laszlo Biro, who invented parts of, and popularized the ball point pen, ( along with Marcel Bich, the frenchman, – he of the Bic company fame).

    Have a nice day, all.

  7. Bill thanks for explaining the differences and similarities, between geniuses ( genii ) and the ones from the lamp. Much as I prefer genius(-es) I guess they would lead to more boring fairy tales.

    On Agio-s , I have read somewhere that the average forgn exchange fee for a conversion of under a thousand dollars USD is about 12%.

    I see we have Ms. Travabigzanda again today. I don’t know whether I mentioned this before, that I discovered ( while reading about the genocidal expulsion(s) of the ‘native’ greek populations, post WW I, from most of mainland Turkey, as Anatolia, …. that Trabzond is an actual city in NNE Turkey. on the Black Sea.

    As reagrds AGI – so far, as I am aware, there are atleast, 7 different AGI’s for various calculations – one for ‘regular’ income tax, one for Alternate Minimum Tax, one for SSec taxability inclusions, one for Passive Activity deductablity, for personal exemption deductability, one for Foreign tax inclusion and one for worldwide expense on income deductability, and then one for Obama care premium discounts etc etc. and ofcourse Earned income refundable credits. The IRS is now the main go-to agency for anywhere from missing parents, missing kids to missing links.

    1. @Vidwan827 … During the Cold War, my oldest brother spent a number of years with the USAF Security Service, doing electronic surveillance of the USSR. Because of this, he spent a lot of time in various out-of-the-way places, one of which was Trebizond (spelling suggested by the spell-checker on this site). He told a number of interesting stories about the place (most of which, unfortunately, I have now forgotten).

  8. After a miserable day of appointments, shopping, home repairs, broken AC, no time to eat, at 9 p.m. I finally collapsed into my chair with this puzzle to unwind. Instead, I got wound up. utterly STUPID cluing and “cutsey” defs made this an abomination for me. Even when I saw the answer (after getting less than half the fills), I STILL didn’t understand them. Lately, the LAT puzzle editors have been asleep at the wheel. Over the past few months the complaints here and other sites have multiplied dramatically. Editors, ARE YOU LISTENING???

  9. Hi Bobbi. Just to keep the editors from doing something drastic can I just say we expect Friday and Saturday grids to be rife with misleading clues and definitions that defy easy expectations. Monday through Wednesday is for the girds that let you unwind without much thinking or angst. Just my 2 cents. Hope you and all of the other crossword lovers here have a great weekend.

    Tony Michaels

  10. This puzzle was trash. I found redemption in the NSYNC clue, but overall rubbish-ju
    Despite Mac’s constant support, I was unable to complete this puzzle. I will never leave Mr. Shortz again! rw
    Senseless. js

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