LA Times Crossword Answers 30 Mar 2018, Friday

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Constructed by: Mark Feldman
Edited by: Rich Norris

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Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Sounds Like a Celeb’s

Themed answers sound like well-known phrases. However, they are actually items belonging to some famous people:

  • 17A. Religious text for a Texas senator? : CRUZ MISSAL (from “cruise missile”)
  • 24A. Pet for a Spanish surrealist? : DALI LLAMA (from “Dalai Lama”)
  • 53A. Underage child of a German chancellor? : KOHL MINOR (from “coalminer”)
  • 62A. Household help for a 19th-century president? : TAYLOR MAID (from “tailor-made”)

Bill’s time: 13m 46s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Like “le” in Fr. : MASC

In French, “le” is the definite article used with masculine nouns.

15. Starbucks offering : LATTE

The term “latte” is an abbreviation of the Italian “caffelatte” meaning “coffee (and) milk”. Note that in the correct spelling of “latte”, the Italian word for milk, there is no accent over the “e”. An accent is often added by mistake when we use the word in English, perhaps meaning to suggest that the word is French.

Starbucks is a coffee company based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest coffeehouse company in the world and has over 19,000 stores. In the 1990s, Starbucks was opening one new store every single day! Starbucks is named after the chief mate on the Pequod in Herman Melville’s book “Moby Dick”.

16. Cap with a flat, circular top : KEPI

A kepi is that circular cap with a visor that’s worn in particular by the French military.

17. Religious text for a Texas senator? : CRUZ MISSAL (from “cruise missile”)

US Senator Ted Cruz served as Solicitor General for the state of Texas before heading to Washington. Cruz was appointed Solicitor General in 2003 at the age of 32, making him the youngest Solicitor General in the country. Famously, Cruz is an opponent of the Affordable Care Act and made a speech in 2013 in the US Senate on the subject that lasted for 21 hours and 19 minutes. It was the fourth longest speech in the history of the Senate.

Missals came into being in medieval times and were used primarily by priests and ministers. A missal is a book containing all the texts necessary for the celebration of Mass through the liturgical year. Nowadays missals are used by the congregation and not just by the celebrants. The term “missal” comes from the Latin for “Mass book”.

20. Home of Amboseli National Park : KENYA

Kenya lies on the east coast of Africa, right on the equator. The country takes her name from Mount Kenya, the second highest peak on the continent (after Kilimanjaro). The official languages of Kenya are English and Swahili.

Amboseli National Park straddles the Kenya-Tanzania border and covers just over 150 square miles. Reputedly, Amboseli is the best place in the world to get a close-up look at roaming elephants.

21. Pennant race mo. : SEP

The last few weeks of the baseball season are known as “a pennant race”. Before 1969, the term was perhaps more apt, as the pennant winner (league champion) would be the team with the best win-loss record at the end of the season. Starting in 1969, when both the National and American Leagues formally split into East and West divisions, the pennant has been awarded to the winner of a best-of-five series of games played by the division winners each October. The pennant winners then go on to the best-of-seven World Series, also played in October.

22. Tied accessory : ASCOT

An Ascot is a horrible-looking (I think!), wide tie that narrows at the neck, which these days is only really worn at weddings. The tie takes its name from the Royal Ascot horse race at which punters still turn up in formal wear at Ascot Racecourse in England.

24. Pet for a Spanish surrealist? : DALI LLAMA (from “Dalai Lama”)

The artist Salvador Dalí liked to make a splash in public. He was known to walk an anteater on a lead around Paris. He also brought an anteater on stage to an interview on “The Dick Cavett Show” in 1970.

Many female mammals lick off their newborn. That’s not an option for llamas as their tongues only reach out of their mouths about half an inch. Instead, llama dams nuzzle their young and hum to them.

The Dalai Lama is a religious leader in the Gelug branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama is the 14th to hold the office. He has indicated that the next Dalai Lama might be found outside of Tibet for the first time, and may even be female.

30. Dos Passos trilogy : USA

John Dos Passos was an American novelist and artist who perhaps best known for his “USA” trilogy of novels:

  1. The 42nd Parallel (1930)
  2. 1919 (1932)
  3. The Big Money (1936)

33. With 44-Across, Hanna-Barbera feline : TOP …
(44A. See 33-Across : … CAT)

“Top Cat” is one of the first cartoon shows that I remember watching regularly. It was a Hanna-Barbera production that had an original run from 1961 to 1962, in which 30 episodes were made. Top Cat is the leader of a gang of alley cats in Manhattan, New York. The gang frequently came up against NYPD police officer Charlie Dibble, my favorite character in the show.

34. Cravings : YENS

The word “yen”, meaning “urge”, has been around in English since the very early 1900s. It comes from the earlier word “yin” imported from Chinese, which was used in English to describe an intense craving for opium.

50. Baptized boys, often : GODSONS

Baptism is a rite in Christian traditions admitting a candidate, often an infant, into the Church. The ceremony usually uses water as a sign of purification. Water may be poured on the head, or the candidate may be totally immersed in water.

53. Underage child of a German chancellor? : KOHL MINOR (from “coalminer”)

Helmut Kohl was Chancellor of West Germany when the Berlin Wall came down leading to German reunification. Kohl was Chancellor of West Germany from 1982 to 1990, and Chancellor of Germany from 1990 to 1998. That made Kohl the longest serving Chancellor since Otto von Bismarck.

56. Whac-__ : A-MOLE

The Whac-A-Mole arcade game was invented in 1976. Players use a mallet to force five plastic moles back into their holes. Whacking the moles can be so frustrating that we sometimes use the term “Whac-a-mole” to describe a repetitive and futile task.

57. Heating stat : BTU

In the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), the power of a heating or cooling unit can be measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs). This dated unit is the amount of energy required to heat a pound of water so that the water’s temperature increases by one degree Fahrenheit.

58. Finnish architect Alvar __ : AALTO

Alvar Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. He did most of his work in the first half of the twentieth century, and earned himself the nickname of “Father of Modernism” in Finland and the rest of the Nordic countries.

62. Household help for a 19th-century president? : TAYLOR MAID (from “tailor-made”)

Zachary Taylor won the 1848 election to become the 12th US president, and the first president to hold office without a political resume. Taylor was a career military man, known as “Old Rough and Ready” Taylor. He died only 16 months into his term, apparently of gastroenteritis. Given that rumors of poisoning persisted over the decades, his body was exhumed in 1991 and tissue samples were checked for signs of foul play. Nothing out of order was discovered, although rumours still persist.

65. Resort WSW of Denver : ASPEN

Aspen, Colorado used to be known as Ute City, with the name change taking place in 1880. Like many communities in the area, Aspen was a mining town, and in 1891 and 1892 it was at the center of the highest production of silver in the US. Nowadays, it’s all about skiing and movie stars.

67. Titillating message : SEXT

Sexting (a portmanteau of “sex” and “texting”) is the sending of explicit dialog and images between cell phones. The term “sexting” was coined by the UK’s “Sunday Telegraph Magazine” in a 2005 article.

69. Cong. period : SESS

A legislative (legis.) meeting of Congress (Cong.) might be called a session (sess.).

Down

1. Sham : MOCK

A sham is something that is imitation, fake. In the world of bed linens, a sham is also an imitation or fake, in the sense that it is a decorative cover designed to cover up a regular pillow used for sleeping.

2. Israeli port : ACRE

Acre is a port city in northern Israel, on Haifa Bay.

5. “When We Were Kings” subject : ALI

“When We Were Kings” is a documentary by Leon Gast that was released in 1996. It tells of the “Rumble in the Jumble” world heavyweight title fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman that took place in Zaire. That’s the fight with the famous “rope-a-dope” tactic that tired out Foreman, and perhaps launched his new career selling grills …

12. Poise : APLOMB

“Aplomb” is such a lovely word, one meaning “confidence, assurance”. It is a French word that literally means “perpendicularity”, or “on the plumb line”. The idea is that someone with aplomb is poised, upright, balanced.

13. Madonna portrayals : PIETAS

The Pietà is a representation of the Virgin Mary holding in her arms the dead body of her son Jesus. The most famous Pietà is probably the sculpted rendition by Michelangelo which is located in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. In some depictions, Mary and her son are surrounded by other figures from the New Testament, and these depictions are known as Lamentations.

18. Crèche trio : MAGI

“Magi” is the plural of the Latin word “magus”, a term applied to someone who was able to read the stars. Hence, “magi” is commonly used with reference to the “wise men from the East” who followed the star and visited Jesus soon after he was born. In Western Christianity, the three Biblical Magi are:

  • Melchior: a scholar from Persia
  • Caspar: a scholar from India
  • Balthazar: a scholar from Arabia

In the Christian tradition, a nativity scene (also “crèche”) is a display of representing the the scene of the birth of Jesus. Nativity scenes might be subjects for paintings, for example, although the term is usually used for seasonal displays associated with the Christmas season.

22. Glee club member : ALTO

A glee club is a choir group, usually of males, that sings short songs known as “glees”. A glee is a song scored for three or more voices that is performed unaccompanied.

28. List ender : ET ALII

Et alii (et al.) is the equivalent of et cetera (etc.), with et cetera being used in place of a list of objects, and et alii used for a list of names. In fact “et al.” can stand for et alii (for a group of males, or males and females), aliae (for a group of women) and et alia (for a group of neuter nouns, or for a group of people where the intent is to retain gender-neutrality).

32. Idiosyncratic contraction : TIC

A tic is a twitching of a muscle, usually a facial muscle.

37. They squelch discussions : GAG RULES

In a legislative body, for example, a “gag rule” prohibits the tabling or discussion of a particular topic.

40. “Piano is not my forte,” e.g. : PUN

Here are some of my favorite puns:

  • A man died today when a pile of books fell on him. He only had his shelf to blame.
  • I hate negative numbers and will stop at nothing to avoid them.
  • I wasn’t going to get a brain transplant, but then I changed my mind.
  • I should have been sad when my flashlight batteries died, but I was delighted.

46. Congo natives : OKAPIS

The okapi is closely related to the giraffe, although it does have markings on its legs and haunches that resemble those of a zebra. The okapi’s tongue is long enough to reach back and wash its eyeballs, and can go back even further to clean its ears inside and out.

48. Middle section of an insect : THORAX

By definition, an insect has a body made up of three parts: head, thorax and abdomen.

49. Hoping to get home : ON BASE

That would be baseball.

52. Religious ascetics : SWAMIS

A swami is a religious teacher in the Hindu tradition. The word “swami” can also mean “husband” in the Bengali and Malay languages.

54. Common blood group : O-TYPE

Here is an approximate distribution of blood types across the US population:

  • O-positive: 38 percent
  • O-negative: 7 percent
  • A-positive: 34 percent
  • A-negative: 6 percent
  • B-positive: 9 percent
  • B-negative: 2 percent
  • AB-positive: 3 percent
  • AB-negative: 1 percent

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Like “le” in Fr. : MASC
5. Degrade : ABASE
10. There’s no money in it : SWAP
14. Prefix with syllabic : OCTO-
15. Starbucks offering : LATTE
16. Cap with a flat, circular top : KEPI
17. Religious text for a Texas senator? : CRUZ MISSAL (from “cruise missile”)
19. Flex ending : -IBLE
20. Home of Amboseli National Park : KENYA
21. Pennant race mo. : SEP
22. Tied accessory : ASCOT
23. Cause of a sleeve movement : TUG
24. Pet for a Spanish surrealist? : DALI LLAMA (from “Dalai Lama”)
26. More uneven : BUMPIER
29. Puts in a vault, in a way : ENTOMBS
30. Dos Passos trilogy : USA
31. Mild rebuke : TUT
33. With 44-Across, Hanna-Barbera feline : TOP …
34. Cravings : YENS
36. Sidekick : AMIGO
38. Glimpse : ESPY
42. Not a good start? : MAL-
44. See 33-Across : … CAT
45. Shade : HUE
46. Michigan neighbor : ONTARIO
50. Baptized boys, often : GODSONS
53. Underage child of a German chancellor? : KOHL MINOR (from “coalminer”)
55. Milk source : EWE
56. Whac-__ : A-MOLE
57. Heating stat : BTU
58. Finnish architect Alvar __ : AALTO
61. Look closely (over) : PORE
62. Household help for a 19th-century president? : TAYLOR MAID (from “tailor-made”)
64. Bank offerings : IRAS
65. Resort WSW of Denver : ASPEN
66. __ coffee : ICED
67. Titillating message : SEXT
68. Silly ones : GEESE
69. Cong. period : SESS

Down

1. Sham : MOCK
2. Israeli port : ACRE
3. Nonspeaking movie role : STUNTMAN
4. Ingratiate oneself (to) : COZY UP
5. “When We Were Kings” subject : ALI
6. It takes a beating : BASS DRUM
7. Befuddled : AT SEA
8. Basic : STAPLE
9. Sushi selection : EEL
10. 65-Across feature : SKI SLOPE
11. Interoffice connection : WEBCAM
12. Poise : APLOMB
13. Madonna portrayals : PIETAS
18. Crèche trio : MAGI
22. Glee club member : ALTO
25. Completely : IN TOTO
26. Accept : BUY
27. Consumption : USE
28. List ender : ET ALII
32. Idiosyncratic contraction : TIC
35. Of least significance : SMALLEST
37. They squelch discussions : GAG RULES
39. It goes over the tongue : SHOELACE
40. “Piano is not my forte,” e.g. : PUN
41. With 51-Down, sometimes-sighed line : YES …
43. French weapon : ARME
46. Congo natives : OKAPIS
47. “That’s enough already!” : NO MORE!
48. Middle section of an insect : THORAX
49. Hoping to get home : ON BASE
51. See 41-Down : … DEAR
52. Religious ascetics : SWAMIS
54. Common blood group : O-TYPE
59. Connections : TIES
60. Chances : ODDS
62. Identify on Facebook : TAG
63. Unified : ONE

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