LA Times Crossword Answers 24 Sep 12, Monday

CROSSWORD SETTER: Adam Prince
THEME: SIDE SALAD … each of the theme answers includes a word that is associated with SALAD:

17A. Corfu or Crete GREEK ISLE (Greek salad)
25A. Salute heard at the Forum HAIL CAESAR (Caesar salad)
37A. Classic Frances Hodgson Burnett children’s novel THE SECRET GARDEN (garden salad)
45A. Once-common childhood ailment CHICKEN POX (chicken salad)
56A. Entrée go-with, or the aptly placed part of 17-, 25-, 37- or 45-Across SIDE SALAD

COMPLETION TIME: 5m 48s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
9. Holy Roman emperor crowned in CMLXII OTTO I
Otto I the Great, ruled the Holy Roman Empire in the 10th century.

17. Corfu or Crete GREEK ISLE (Greek salad)
Corfu is one of the most northerly of all the Greek Isles. Corfu plays an important role in Greek mythology and is oft-associated with god Poseidon. Nowadays, Corfu is more readily associated with tourists from mainland Europe.

21. Volkswagen sedan JETTA
The name Jetta is one in a series of names related to winds that has used by Volkswagen. Jetta comes from the German for “jet stream””, and the model name Passat comes from the German for “trade wind”.

22. Scary Nile snakes ASPS
The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.

25. Salute heard at the Forum HAIL CAESAR (Caesar salad)
Tijuana is the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California, and lies just across the US-Mexico border from San Diego. Tijuana is also the most westerly of all Mexican cities. A lot of Tijuana’s growth took place in the twenties as tourists flocked south of the border during the days of prohibition in the US. One of the many casinos and hotels that flourished at that time was Hotel Caesar’s, in the Avenida Revolución area. Hotel Caesar’s claims to be the birthplace of the now ubiquitous Caesar Salad.

27. Friend of Monica and Rachel on “Friends” PHOEBE
The character Phoebe Buffay is played on the sitcom “Friends” by the actress Lisa Kudrow. Kudrow plays the ditsy member of the troupe of friends, but I’ve always viewed her as the “smartest” of the group of actors in real life, as best I could tell. Kudrow is behind the US version of the British genealogy show “Who Do You Think You Are?” a very entertaining bit of television.

31. Snow-block home IGLOO
The Inuit word for “house” is “iglu”, which we usually write as “igloo”. The Greenlandic (yes, that’s a language) word for “house” is very similar, “igdlo”.

34. Ab __: from day one OVO
“Ab ovo” translates literally from Latin as “from the egg”, and is used in English to mean “from the beginning”.

37. Classic Frances Hodgson Burnett children’s novel THE SECRET GARDEN (garden salad)
“The Secret Garden” is a children’s novel written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, first published in serial form in 1910, and then as a complete book in 1911. The story is so popular that it has been adapted on more than one occasion for the stage, big screen, and television, and there are also numerous animated productions as well.

40. CIA precursor OSS
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was formed during WWII in order to carry out espionage behind enemy lines. A few years after the end of the war, the OSS functions were taken up by a new group, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

41. Arkin and Alda ALANS
The actor Alan Arkin won his only Oscar (Best Supporting Actor) for his role in “Little Miss Sunshine” from 2006, a movie I just did not understand …

Alan Alda had a great television career, especially of course on “M*A*S*H”. But when it comes to the big screen, my favorite of his movies is the 1978 romantic comedy “Same Time, Next Year” in which he starred opposite Ellen Burstyn.

42. Queen, in France REINE
“La reine” (the queen) might sit on “le trône” (the throne), in French.

45. Once-common childhood ailment CHICKEN POX (chicken salad)
Chicken pox is a viral infection, a classic disease of childhood most commonly caught by 4-10 year olds. There is a complication that can arise later in life as the virus sometimes reactivates to cause shingles.

52. Boca __ RATON
The name of the city of Boca Raton in Florida translates from Spanish as “Mouse Mouth”. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive etymology of the name but one plausible explanation is a nautical one. “Boca”, as well as meaning “mouth” can mean “inlet”. “Ratón”, as well as meaning “mouse” was also used to describe rocks that chewed away at a ship’s anchor cable. So possibly Boca Raton was named for a rocky inlet.

55. Primitive calculators ABACI
The abacus was used as a counting frame long before man had invented a numerical numbering system. It is a remarkable invention, particularly when one notes that it is still widely used today across Africa and Asia.

56. Entrée go-with, or the aptly placed part of 17-, 25-, 37- or 45-Across SIDE SALAD
Entrée of course means “entry” in French. An entrée can be something that helps one get a “way in”, an interview for example perhaps helped along by a recommendation letter. In Europe, even in English-speaking countries, the entrée is the name for the “entry” to the meal, the first course. I found it very confusing to order meals when I first came to America!

60. Spiced rice dish PILAF
Pilaf is a Persian word, and we use it to describe rice that is browned in oil and then cooked in a seasoned broth.

61. Cinque meno due TRE
Five minus two (cinque meno due) is three (tre), in Spanish.

62. Prefix with -dactyl PTERO-
The prefixes pter- and ptero- mean “pertaining to a wing, or a feather”, coming from the Greek word “pteron” (feather). Examples of use would be in pterosaur and pterodactyl.

64. IRS W-4 info SSN
The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation, although given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an “identity number” to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, an SSN was required only for persons with substantial income so many children under 14 had no number assigned. For some years the IRS had a concern that a lot of people were claiming children on their tax returns who did not actually exist. So, from 1986 onward, it is a requirement to get an SSN for any dependents over the ago of 5. Sure enough, in 1987 seven million dependents “disappeared”.

65. Saudi Arabia neighbor YEMEN
Yemen is located on the Arabian Peninsula, lying just south of Saudi Arabia and west of Oman. Yemen is the only state on the peninsula that is a republic (its official name is the Republic of Yemen). Everyone over the age of 18 gets to vote, but only Muslims can hold elected office.

Down
1. NBA scoring stat PPG
Points per game (PPG).

5. Trike rider TYKE
“Tyke” has been used playfully to describe a young child since at least 1902, but for centuries before that a tyke was a cur or mongrel, or perhaps a lazy or lower-class man.

7. __ Lama DALAI
Starting with the fifth Dalai Lama in the 17th century, the Buddhist leader used to spend the winter months in the magnificent Potola Palace in the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa. The current Dalai Lama (the 14th) had to flee Tibet when the Tibetan people rebelled against Chinese occupation in 1959. Since then, he has resided in Dharamsala in Northern India, as a guest of the Indian people.

9. Séance accessory OUIJA BOARD
The Ouija board was introduced to America as a harmless parlor game at the end of the 19th century, although variations of the board date back to 1100 BC in China, where it was apparently used to “contact” the spirit world. The name “Ouija” is relatively recent, and is probably just a combination of the French and German words for “yes” … “oui” and “ja”.

11. “__ a wrap!” THAT’S
When shooting of a film is concluded the movie is said to “wrap”, and everyone heads to the wrap party. There is one story that “wrap” is actually an acronym for “wind, reel and print”, a reference to the transition of the filming process into post-production. But, this explanation is disputed.

18. “__ Dead?”: Mark Twain play IS HE
Mark Twain’s play “Is He Dead?” was written in 1898, but it wasn’t published in print until over 100 years later, in 2003. It opened on Broadway in 2007, and ran for 105 performances.

23. Persian sovereigns SHAHS
The last Shah of Iran was Mohammed-Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was overthrown by the revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. The post-revolution government sought the extradition of the Shah back to Iran while he was in the United States seeking medical care (he had cancer). His prolonged stay in the United States, recovering from surgery, caused some unrest back in Iran and resentment towards the United States. Some say that this precipitated the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran and the resulting hostage crisis.

31. Pension supplement, for short IRA
I have to tell you when I first came to the US from Ireland, it was pretty confusing seeing big signs along the freeway advocating IRA contributions. Back in Ireland, that was pretty illegal (where IRA stands for the outlawed Irish Republican Army!).

32. First Bible bk. GEN
The Book of Genesis takes it name from the Greek word for “origin”.

34. Keats, notably ODIST
The poet John Keats is famous for writing a whole series of beautiful odes. The most renowned are the so-called “1819 Odes”, a collection from the year 1819 that includes famous poems such as “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode to Psyche”.

38. Game with rooms and weapons CLUE
Clue is another board game that we knew under a different name growing up in Ireland. Outside of North America, Clue is marketed as “Cluedo”. Cluedo was the original name of the game, introduced in 1949 by the famous British board game manufacturer Waddingtons. There are cute differences between the US and UK versions. For example, the man who is murdered is called Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy in the US), one of the suspects is the Reverend Green (Mr. Green in the US), and the suspect weapons include a dagger (a knife in the US), a lead pipe (lead piping in the US) and a spanner (a wrench in the US). I think it’s a fabulous game, a must during the holidays …

39. Republican region, on a political map RED STATE
On political maps, red states are Republican and blue states Democrat. The designation of red and blue states is a very recent concept, only introduced in the 2000 presidential election by TV journalist, the late Tim Russert. In retrospect, the choice of colors is surprising, as in other democracies around the world red is usually used to describe left-leaning socialist parties (the reds under the bed!), and blue is used for conservative right-wing parties.

43. Toyota Prius, e.g. ECO-CAR
The Toyota Prius is still the most fuel-efficient, gasoline-powered car sold in the US, according to the EPA. The name “Prius” is a Latin word meaning “ahead, leading”. In the US we pronounce the name “pree-us”, but across the Atlantic it’s pronounced “pry-us”. Oh, and i drive one …

45. High roller’s game CRAPS
If one considers earlier versions of craps, then the game has been around for a very long time and probably dates back to the Crusades. Craps may be derived from an old English game called “hazard” also played with two dice, which was mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” from the 1300s. The American version of the game came here courtesy of the French and first set root in New Orleans where it was given the name “crapaud”, a French word meaning “toad”.

47. __-Turkish War ITALO-
The Italo-Turkish War was fought between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy from September 1911 and October 1912. At the end of the conflict the Ottoman Empire ceded to Italy the three provinces of Tropolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica, which became Italian North Africa, and ultimately the country that we know today as Libya.

50. Humorous poet Nash OGDEN
The poet Ogden Nash was well known for his light and humorous verse. Try this one:

The one-L lama,
He’s a priest.
The two-L llama,
He’s a beast.
And I would bet
A silk pajama
There isn’t any
Three-L lllama.

57. NASA moon craft LEM
In the Apollo program, the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) was the vehicle that actually landed on the moon and returned the astronauts to the command module that was orbiting overhead. The third LEM built was named “Spider”, and it participated in the Apollo 9 mission which tested the functionality of the LEM design in space. The fourth LEM was called “Snoopy”, and it flew around the moon in the Apollo 10 mission, the dress rehearsal for the upcoming moon landing. Apollo 11’s LEM was of course called “Eagle”, and it brought Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to and from the moon’s surface.

58. “We __ the World” ARE
“We Are the World” is the 1985 charity single recorded by a whole host of celebrity singers who came together as USA for Africa. “We Are the World” was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and sold over 20 million copies. The idea for the USA for Africa recording came out of the great success of the UK project, Band Aid’s “do They Know it’s Christmas?”.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Sitcom’s test episode PILOT
6. Sitcom interrupters ADS
9. Holy Roman emperor crowned in CMLXII OTTO I
14. In on, with “to” PRIVY
15. Keg attachment TAP
16. “Yep” UH-HUH
17. Corfu or Crete GREEK ISLE (Greek salad)
19. Hopping mad IRATE
20. Close again, as a Ziploc bag RESEAL
21. Volkswagen sedan JETTA
22. Scary Nile snakes ASPS
25. Salute heard at the Forum HAIL CAESAR (Caesar salad)
27. Friend of Monica and Rachel on “Friends” PHOEBE
29. Dumbbell abbr. LBS
30. Selfish sort TAKER
31. Snow-block home IGLOO
34. Ab __: from day one OVO
37. Classic Frances Hodgson Burnett children’s novel THE SECRET GARDEN (garden salad)
40. CIA precursor OSS
41. Arkin and Alda ALANS
42. Queen, in France REINE
43. End of a professor’s email address EDU
44. Makes sense ADDS UP
45. Once-common childhood ailment CHICKEN POX (chicken salad)
51. Flower stalk STEM
52. Boca __ RATON
53. Young bird of prey EAGLET
55. Primitive calculators ABACI
56. Entrée go-with, or the aptly placed part of 17-, 25-, 37- or 45-Across SIDE SALAD
60. Spiced rice dish PILAF
61. Cinque meno due TRE
62. Prefix with -dactyl PTERO-
63. Keep in the warehouse STORE
64. IRS W-4 info SSN
65. Saudi Arabia neighbor YEMEN

Down
1. NBA scoring stat PPG
2. Like some reduced mdse. IRR
3. Commit perjury LIE
4. Supervises OVERSEES
5. Trike rider TYKE
6. On the ocean AT SEA
7. __ Lama DALAI
8. Wizard’s incantation SPELL
9. Séance accessory OUIJA BOARD
10. Good scores on par-fours THREES
11. “__ a wrap!” THAT’S
12. “__ sight!” OUTTA
13. “Word on the street is …” I HEAR
18. “__ Dead?”: Mark Twain play IS HE
22. Probably will, after “is” APT TO
23. Persian sovereigns SHAHS
24. Jabs in the ribs POKES
26. Thick-soled shoe CLOG
28. Serrated kitchen tool BREAD KNIFE
31. Pension supplement, for short IRA
32. First Bible bk. GEN
33. USN officers LTS
34. Keats, notably ODIST
35. Change of __: trial request VENUE
36. Early aft. hour ONE PM
38. Game with rooms and weapons CLUE
39. Republican region, on a political map RED STATE
43. Toyota Prius, e.g. ECO-CAR
44. Wheel-supporting shaft AXLE
45. High roller’s game CRAPS
46. Nun’s wear HABIT
47. __-Turkish War ITALO-
48. Homes in trees NESTS
49. Sock purchases PAIRS
50. Humorous poet Nash OGDEN
54. Catch sight of ESPY
57. NASA moon craft LEM
58. “We __ the World” ARE
59. Mafia boss DON

Return to top of page