LA Times Crossword Answers 2 Dec 16, Friday

Note: The numbering in today’s print puzzle is different from that shown in my grid. This is because I solve an online version of the puzzle, which doesn’t allow for “non-numbered” clues.




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Constructed by: Peter Koetters

Edited by: Rich Norris

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

Quicklink to comments

Theme: Over, Literally

Each of today’s themed answers includes the word OVER, but that OVER is implied from the position of the words in the answer:

  • 14A. Art critic’s phrase, literally : STYLE (over)
  • 17A. – : SUBSTANCE
  • 30A. Theme park near Dallas, literally : SIX FLAGS (over)
  • 36A. – : TEXAS
  • 42A. Changes one’s ways, literally : TURNS (over)
  • 47A. – : A NEW LEAF
  • 62A. Tumbles out of control, literally : FALLS HEAD (over)
  • 66A. – : HEELS

Bill’s time: 10m 12s

Bill’s errors: 0




Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across

6. Law degs. : JDS

The law degree that is abbreviated to J.D. stands for Juris Doctor.

14. Art critic’s phrase, literally : STYLE (over)
17. – : SUBSTANCE

The phrase “style over substance” applies to something that looks good only on the surface.

15. Calendar pg. : OCT

October is the tenth month in our calendar but was the eighth month in the old Roman calendar, hence the name “Octo-ber”. Back then there were only ten months in the year. “Ianuarius” (January) and “Februarius” were then added as the eleventh and twelfth months of the year. Soon after, the year was reset and January and February became the first and second months.

16. NBA’s Jackson et al. : PHILS

Phil Jackson is a retired basketball player and coach. Most noted as a successful coach, Jackson led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles and the LA Lakers to five. As such, he won more NBA titles than any other coach in history. Jackson also won two NBA titles as a player, with the New York Knicks in the seventies.

19. “10” co-star : DEREK

Bo Derek’s most famous role was in the comedy film from 1979 titled “10”, in which she starred opposite Dudley Moore. Born Mary Cathleen Collins in Long Beach, California, she started a romantic relationship when she was 16 with actor and director John Derek, who was thirty years her senior. The couple moved to Germany in order to avoid the statutory rape laws in California, eventually returning to the US to marry in 1976, when Cathleen was 20. Around the same time, she changed her name to Bo Derek.

“10” is a fun romantic comedy released in 1979 starring Dudley Moore, Bo Derek and Julie Andrews. Famously, the movie made stars of Moore and Derek, as well as popularizing Ravel’s marvelous piece of music called “Boléro”.

21. Pamplona’s municipality : NAVARRE

Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain that shares a border with France. The capital of Navarre is Pamplona, the city famous for the “running of the bulls”.

25. Israeli border lake : DEAD SEA

The Dead Sea is a salt lake that lies over 1,000 feet below sea level in the Middle East. It is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, with a salt content that is almost ten times that of most oceans.

30. Theme park near Dallas, literally : SIX FLAGS (over)
36. – : TEXAS

The Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an operator of amusement parks that is headquartered in Grand Prairie, Texas. Six Flags owns more amusement parks than any other company in the world. The first of these properties to open was Six Flags Over Texas. The park’s name was chosen as a homage to the flags of the six nations that have governed Texas, namely Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America, and the Confederate States of America.

31. “Conan” channel : TBS

The tbs cable television station started out in 1967 as local broadcast TV station in Atlanta. The station’s first call letters were WJRJ-TV, and this was changed to WTCG in 1970 when it was acquired by Ted Turner (the TCG stood for Turner Communications Group). In 1976, Turner started distributing WTCG via satellite making its programming available in other parts of the country. WTCG was only the second channel to transmit via satellite, following HBO. The difference was that WTCG was broadcast without requiring a premium subscription. The station’s call sign was changed again in 1979 to WTBS, with TBS standing for Turner Broadcasting System. In 1981, the channel adopted the moniker “Superstation WTBS”.

34. Dayan of Israel : MOSHE

Moshe Dayan had a long and distinguished military career (including command of Israeli forces during the 1956 Suez Crisis). He also played a pivotal, and militarily active, role as Minister for Defense during the Six-Day War of 1967. He was a very recognizable figure with a black patch over his left eye. Dayan received that injury when he was fighting for the Allies in Vichy French Lebanon during WWII. He was using a pair of binoculars that was hit by an enemy bullet, smashing metal and glass fragments into his eye.

37. Giants manager before Bochy : ALOU

Felipe Alou is a former professional baseball player and manager. Alou managed the Montreal Expos from 1992 to 2001, and the San Francisco Giants from 2003 to 2006. Alou was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and came to the US to play for the Giants in 1955. Felipe’s brothers Matty and Jesús followed him to the US, and into Major League baseball.

Bruce Bochy has been manager of the San Francisco Giants baseball team since 2007. Bochy is a little unusual in the Major League Baseball world in that he was born in France (his father was a US Army officer stationed there). Bruce became the first European-born manager to win the World Series when the Giants emerged victorious in 2010.

39. Like non-oyster months, traditionally : R-LESS

There is a traditional warning that one shouldn’t eat shellfish in a month without an R i.e. May through August. That’s because these are the warmer months here in the northern hemisphere when algae blooms can spread toxins that are soaked up by clams, mussels and oysters. Personally, I only eat shellfish in months containing a Q … that would be never …

44. “The Deep” director Peter : YATES

Peter Yates was an English film director and producer. His first film as a director is very well known by folks back in my part of the world. Released in 1963, the film “Summer Holiday” is a very lightweight vehicle for the singer Cliff Richard. Over in the US Yates is better remembered for directing the likes of “Bullitt” (1968), “Breaking Away” (1979) and “The Deep” (1977).

“The Deep” is novel by Peter Benchley (who also wrote “Jaws”). “The Deep” was adapted into a 1977 film starring Robert Shaw, Nick Nolte and the lovely Jacqueline Bisset.

46. Bottom line : NET

That would be net of taxes.

56. Loss of speech : APHASIA

Someone with aphasia has dysfunction in specific regions of the brain that result in an inability to use words as symbols of ideas. The most common cause of aphasia is a stroke or head trauma.

59. Before, in Brest : AVANT

Brest is a port city in northwest France, and is the second largest military port in the country. Brest was an important base for German U-boats during WWII when France was occupied by the Nazis. Brest is the most westerly city in the whole country.

64. “In the Bedroom” Oscar nominee : TOMEI

Marisa Tomei’s first screen role was in the daytime soap “As the World Turns”, but her break came with a recurring role in “The Cosby Show” spinoff “A Different World”. Tomei won an Oscar for her delightful performance in “My Cousin Vinny” in 1992.

“In the Bedroom” is a thought-provoking film released in 2001, set in a small community on the coast of Maine. The “bedroom” in the title refers to the inner compartment of a lobster trap (in Ireland we call them lobster pots). The outer chamber of the trap is baited and the lobster lured in. When the lobster enters the small “bedroom” at the rear of the trap, it cannot escape.

65. Passé : OUT

“Passé” is a French word, meaning “past, faded”.

67. “Surprise Symphony” composer : HAYDN

Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 in G major is nicknamed “The Surprise Symphony”. Haydn was very fond of including a little humor in his music, and the “surprise” in Symphony No. 94 is the most famous. That surprise is a very loud chord at the end of a very quiet and lyrical passage in the second movement. As a result, the German nickname for “The Surprise Symphony” is “The Symphony with the Kettledrum Stroke”.

Down

1. Some jennies : ASSES

A female donkey is known as a jenny, and a male is known as a jack, or sometimes a “jackass”. We started using the term “jackass” to mean “fool” in the 1820s.

3. Prophetess : SYBIL

The word, and name, sibyl, comes from the Greek word “sibylla” meaning “prophetess”. There were many sibyls, but most famous is probably the Delphic Sybil.

4. Longtime Dodger manager : ALSTON

Walter “Smokey” Alston was the very successful manager of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers from 1954 to 1976. Alston was not very successful as a player. He played as first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals but only for one season and in only one game, in 1936. Alston had only one at bat and he struck out, on three pitches.

6. Whale of a guy? : JONAH

The story of “Jonah’s Dilemma” can be found in the Bible. The story involves Jonah being swallowed by a whale and living inside the “big fish” for three days. I’ve never understood where the “dilemma” is in the tale, though …

7. Half of MCDX : DCCV

In Roman numerals, half of MCDX (1410) is DCCV (705).

10. Cajoled : WHEEDLED

“To wheedle” is to influence by flattery for one’s gain. Such a lovely verb, I think …

12. Key for Fauré? : ILE

“Île” is the French for “island, key”.

Gabriel Fauré was a French composer whose most famous work has to be his elegant “Pavane”. Fauré was a student of Camille Saint-Saëns, who later became a very close friend.

18. Run at the end : ANCHOR

That would be the anchor leg in a race.

22. “Toy Story” dinosaur : REX

In the excellent Pixar film “Toy Story”, Rex is a tyrannosaurus, and a pretty clumsy one. He is voiced by actor Wallace Shawn, whose name is perhaps less familiar than his face. Shawn played the neighbor on “The Cosby Show” as well as many, many other supporting roles on TV and the big screen.

24. Highland lid : TAM

A tam o’shanter is a man’s cap traditionally worn by Scotsmen. “Tams” were originally all blue (and called “blue bonnets”) but as more dyes became readily available they became more colorful. The name of the cap comes from the title character of the Robert Burns poem “Tam O’Shanter”.

26. Ancient Germanic invader : SAXON

Germanic tribes invaded Great Britain from the early 5th century and created the nation that we now call England. The Anglo-Saxons (sometimes simply “Saxons”), as these tribes came to be called, held sway in the country until 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest. The Anglo-Saxons were descendants of three Germanic tribes:

27. Even, in Évian : EGALE

“Égal” (feminine “égale”) is the French word for “equal, alike”, and a word we sometimes use in English. The national motto of France is “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”, meaning “Liberty, equality, fraternity (brotherhood).

Évian-les-Bains (or simply Évian) is in the very east of France, on the shores of Lake Geneva directly across the lake from Lausanne, Switzerland. As one might imagine, Évian is the home of Évian mineral water, the most successful business in town. Personally, I can’t stand the distinctive taste of Évian water …

31. Byes : TATAS

An Englishman might say “tata” or “cheerio” instead of “goodbye”. Well, supposedly so!

45. Civil war site since 2011: Abbr. : SYR

Since the onset of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, a refugee crisis has developed involving almost 7 million internally displaced persons and almost 5 million displaced persons outside of Syria (as of February 2016). Those are staggering numbers, especially when one compares them to the estimated Syrian population of 17 million in 2014.

48. E. African land : ETH

Ethiopia is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation on the continent (after Nigeria), and with 90 million inhabitants, it is the most populous landlocked country in the world. Most anthropologists believe that our Homo sapiens species evolved in the region now called Ethiopia, and from there set out to populate the planet.

50. Dulcimer kin : ZITHER

The zither is a stringed instrument, one in which the strings do not extend beyond the bounds of the sounding box. That means that the instrument has no neck, unlike a guitar say.

There are two types of dulcimer, both of which are stringed instruments. The hammered dulcimer is composed of a set of strings stretched over a wooden sounding board. A musician plays the hammered dulcimer by striking the strings with small hammers. On the other hand, the Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument, not unlike a zither. A musician plays it by laying the instrument flat across the lap and plucking the strings with one hand, while pressing on the frets with the other.

52. Crushes an altar ego? : JILTS

To “jilt” someone with whom you have a relationship is to drop them suddenly or callously. “Jilt” is an obsolete noun that used to mean “harlot” or “loose woman”.

55. Like some heads : SUDSY

That would be the head on a beer, perhaps.

57. King anointed by Samuel : SAUL

According to the Hebrew Bible, Saul was the first King of Israel and ruled from 1049 BC to 1007 BC. Saul’s story is mainly recounted in the Books of Samuel.

59. Sports fig. : ATH

Athlete (ath.)

60. U.S. govt. broadcaster : VOA

The United States Information Agency (USIA) was established under President Eisenhower in 1953, and continued operating until 1999. It’s mission was “public diplomacy”, another term for propaganda broadcast over radio airwaves. The intent from day one was to avoid having the broadcasts identified as propaganda. Speaking as a former listener to the USIA’s Voice of America (VOA) over in Europe, there were a lot of fun programs that had one coming back to hear more, but we all knew it was propaganda quite frankly …

61. Acker of “Person of Interest” : AMY

Actress Amy Acker is a probably best known for her roles on TV, on “Angel”, “Alias” and “Person of Interest”.

“Person of Interest” is a sci-fi crime show on television that originally ran from 2011 and 2016. It’s all about a presumed-dead CIA agent who prevents crime, based on alerts given by “the Machine”. The Machine is a mass-surveillance system that can identify an individual who is about to commit a violent crime.

63. Doo-wop syllable : SHA

Doo-wop developed in the 1940s and can be described as a vocal-based R&B music. Even though the style has been around since the forties, the name doo-wop wasn’t introduced until the early sixties.

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Complete List of Clues and Answers

Across

1. Test : ASSAY

6. Law degs. : JDS

9. While-__: repair shop sign words : U-WAIT

14. Art critic’s phrase, literally : STYLE (over)

15. Calendar pg. : OCT

16. NBA’s Jackson et al. : PHILS

17. – : SUBSTANCE

19. “10” co-star : DEREK

20. Send out : EMIT

21. Pamplona’s municipality : NAVARRE

23. Big stain : SPLOTCH

25. Israeli border lake : DEAD SEA

29. “Doubt it” : NAH

30. Theme park near Dallas, literally : SIX FLAGS (over)

31. “Conan” channel : TBS

34. Dayan of Israel : MOSHE

36. – : TEXAS

37. Giants manager before Bochy : ALOU

39. Like non-oyster months, traditionally : R-LESS

41. Ration (out) : DOLE

42. Changes one’s ways, literally : TURNS (over)

44. “The Deep” director Peter : YATES

46. Bottom line : NET

47. – : A NEW LEAF

49. Closing sequence : XYZ

51. They’re often numbered : STREETS

52. Bench warmers? : JURISTS

56. Loss of speech : APHASIA

58. Drive-__ : THRU

59. Before, in Brest : AVANT

62. Tumbles out of control, literally : FALLS HEAD (over)

64. “In the Bedroom” Oscar nominee : TOMEI

65. Passé : OUT

66. – : HEELS

67. “Surprise Symphony” composer : HAYDN

68. Big tees : XLS

69. Matrix, e.g. : ARRAY

Down

1. Some jennies : ASSES

2. Baffle : STUMP

3. Prophetess : SYBIL

4. Longtime Dodger manager : ALSTON

5. Still : YET

6. Whale of a guy? : JONAH

7. Half of MCDX : DCCV

8. Most constant : STEADIEST

9. Kite aid : UPDRAFT

10. Cajoled : WHEEDLED

11. Whistle blower? : AIR

12. Key for Fauré? : ILE

13. “For shame!” : TSK!

18. Run at the end : ANCHOR

22. “Toy Story” dinosaur : REX

24. Highland lid : TAM

26. Ancient Germanic invader : SAXON

27. Even, in Évian : EGALE

28. Valuable team member : ASSET

30. Field unit : SHEAF

31. Byes : TATAS

32. Not sharp : BLUNT

33. More ticked : SORER

35. Cunning : SLY AS A FOX

38. Still breast-feeding : UNWEANED

40. __ orientation : SEXUAL

43. Ignored the alarm : SLEPT IN

45. Civil war site since 2011: Abbr. : SYR

48. E. African land : ETH

50. Dulcimer kin : ZITHER

52. Crushes an altar ego? : JILTS

53. Utter : SHEER

54. Part of a skipping refrain : TRA-LA

55. Like some heads : SUDSY

57. King anointed by Samuel : SAUL

59. Sports fig. : ATH

60. U.S. govt. broadcaster : VOA

61. Acker of “Person of Interest” : AMY

63. Doo-wop syllable : SHA

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