LA Times Crossword Answers 28 Jan 13, Monday

CROSSWORD SETTER: Gareth Bain
THEME: A Couple of M&Ms … each of today’s themed answers contains four letters M:

18A. Musical based on ABBA songs : MAMMA MIA
20A. Golfer Snead’s nickname : SLAMMIN’ SAMMY
40A. One on a board : COMMITTEE MEMBER
56A. Whale or dolphin : MARINE MAMMAL

63A. Campbell’s soup slogan, and a hint to the puzzle theme found in 18-, 20-, 40- and 56-Across : MMMM GOOD

COMPLETION TIME: 06m 33s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Paper used for envelopes : MANILA
Manila folders and envelopes were originally made from manila hemp, hence the name.

10. Thick-bodied river fish : CHUB
There is a whole family of fish called “chubs” including European chubs, lake chubs, hornyhead chub, creek chubs, and a host of others.

18. Musical based on ABBA songs : MAMMA MIA
The hit musical “Mamma Mia!” was written to showcase the songs of ABBA. I’m a big fan of ABBA’s music, so I’ve seen this show a couple of times and just love it. “Mamma Mia!” is such a big hit on the stage that on any given day there are at least seven performances going on somewhere in the world. There is a really interesting film version of the show that was released in 2008. I think the female lead Meryl Streep is wonderful in the movie, but the male leads, not so much …

20. Golfer Snead’s nickname : SLAMMIN’ SAMMY
Sam Snead was probably the most successful golfer never to win a US Open title, as he won a record 82 PGA Tour events. Snead did win seven majors, but never the US Open. He was also quite the showman. He once hit the scoreboard at Wrigley Field stadium with a golf ball by teeing off from home plate.

23. Naval petty officer : YEOMAN
In the US Navy, a yeoman is tasked with administrative and clerical work. In fact the position of yeoman is the oldest rating in the navy.

36. “True __”: Wayne film : GRIT
The classic 1969 western movie “True Grit” starring John Wayne is a screen adaptation of a 1968 novel by Henry Hathaway. The Coen brothers made another big screen adaption of the novel in 2010 starring Jeff Bridges in the Rooster Cogburn role previously played by John Wayne.

44. Gas in a sign : NEON
The basic design of neon lighting was first demonstrated at the Paris Motor Show in 1910. Such lighting is made up of glass tubes containing a vacuum into which has been introduced a small amount of neon gas. When a voltage is applied between two electrodes inside the tube, the neon gas “glows” and gives off the familiar light.

66. “Seinfeld” woman : ELAINE
The character called Elaine Benes, unlike Jerry, Kramer and George, did not appear in the pilot episode of “Seinfeld”. NBC executives specified the addition of a female lead when they picked up the show citing that the situation was too “male-centric”.

67. Albany’s canal : ERIE
The Erie Canal runs from Albany to Buffalo in the state of New York. What the canal does is allow shipping to proceed from New York Harbor right up the Hudson River, through the canal and into the Great Lakes. When it was opened in 1825, the Erie Canal had immediate impact on the economy of New York City and locations along its route. It was the first means of “cheap” transportation from a port on the Atlantic seaboard into the interior of the United States. Arguably it was the most important factor contributing to the growth of New York City over competing ports such as Baltimore and Philadelphia. It was largely because of the Erie Canal that New York became such an economic powerhouse, earning it the nickname of the Empire State.

New York’s state capital of Albany was founded as a Dutch trading post called Fort Nassau in 1614. The English took over the settlement in 1664 and called it Albany after the future King of England James II, whose title at the time was the Duke of Albany.

68. Actress Hagen : UTA
Uta Hagen was a German-born American actress. Hagen married Jose Ferrer in 1938, but they were divorced ten years later after it was revealed that she was having a long-running affair with Paul Robeson. Her association with Robeson, a prominent civil rights activist, earned her a spot on the Hollywood Blacklist during the McCarthy Era. This forced her away from film, but towards a successful stage career in New York City.

69. Sticky-toed lizards : GECKOS
The word “gecko” comes from an Indonesian/Javanese word “tokek”, which imitative of the reptile’s chirping sound. In making such a sound, geckos are unique in the world of lizards. More interesting to me than a gecko’s chirping is its ability to cling to walls and to other vertical surfaces. Their feet are specially adapted with “toes” that make extremely intimate, close contact to a surface. It isn’t suction that supports them, but rather van der Waals forces (weak “gravitational” attractions). Fascinating stuff …

71. LPGA star Se Ri __ : PAK
Se Ri Pak is a South Korean golfer playing on the LPGA tour. Having a Korean name, we really should be calling her Pak Se Ri as she is known in her homeland. Korean names always start with the family name.

Down
1. Red planet : MARS
The surface of the planet Mars has a very high iron oxide content, so Mars is red because it is rusty!

2. Ill-fated Biblical brother : ABEL
The story of Cain and Abel not only appears in the Christian and Hebrew Bibles, it also features in the Qur’an. In the Muslim account the brothers are named Qabil and Habil.

3. Diddly, to Dalí : NADA
“Nada” is the Spanish word for “nothing”.

The famous surrealist painter Salvador Dalí was born in Figueres, Spain. I had the privilege of visiting the Dalí Museum in Figueres some years ago, just north of Barcelona. If you ever get the chance, it’s a “must see” as it really is a quite magnificent building with a fascinating collection.

5. Oscar winner for “Cat Ballou” : LEE MARVIN
I’ve always thought that Lee Marvin was a very talented actor. Marvin had an amazing voice, and the appearance of a man who was hard and villainous. Yet he was able to break free from the villain roles in which he was typecast and played some characters with more depth. He won an Academy Award for his dual-role performance in 1965’s “Cat Ballou”. His totally unique rendition of the song “Wand’rin Star” from the 1969 musical film “Paint Your Wagon” made it to number one in the UK charts, keeping the Beatles hit “Let it Be” in the number two spot. I’ll bet that surprised even Marvin himself!

“Cat Ballou” is a 1965 film, a comedy western starring Jane Fonda in the title role and Lee Marvin in dual roles, for which Marvin won his only Oscar. The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Roy Chanslor. The novel was a serious and a quite dark work, but it was lightened up for the big screen.

6. Part of FDA: Abbr. : ADMIN
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was in effect created by the Food and Drug Act signed into law by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906.

8. Campus sports org. : NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910.

11. Clumsy actor : HAM
The word “ham”, describing a performer who overacts, is apparently a shortened form of “hamfatter” and dates back to the late 1800s. “Hamfatter” comes from a song in old minstrel shows called “The Ham-Fat Man”. It seems that a poorly performing actor was deemed to have the “acting” qualities of a minstrel made up in blackface.

12. Special forces weapon : UZI
The first Uzi submachine gun was designed in the late 1940s by Major Uziel Gal of the Israel Defense Forces who gave his name to the gun.

13. Arthur who played Maude : BEA
Actress Bea Arthur’s most famous roles were on television, as the lead in the “All in the Family” spin-off “Maude” and as Dorothy Zbornak in “The Golden Girls”. Arthur also won a Tony for playing Vera Charles on stage in the original cast of “Mame” in 1966, two years after she played Yente the matchmaker in the original cast of “Fiddler on the Roof”.

19. Marseille Mrs. : MME
Marseille (often written “Marseilles” in English) is the second largest city in France, after Paris. Marseille is also the largest commercial port in the country. I used to live nearby, and it’s a lovely, lovely place.

21. The Big Apple, initially : NYC
Apparently the first published use of the term “Big Apple” to describe New York City dates back to 1909. Edward Martin wrote the following in his book “The Wayfarer in New York”:

Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city. . . . It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.

Over ten years later, the term “big apple” was used as a nickname for racetracks in and around New York City. However, the concerted effort to “brand” the city as the Big Apple had to wait until the seventies and was the work of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau.

24. Latin ballroom dances : MAMBOS
The form of music and dance known as mambo developed in Cuba. “Mambo” means “conversation with the gods” in Kikongo, a language spoken by slaves taken to Cuba from Central Africa.

25. Orange-yellow gemstones : AMBERS
Amber’s technical name is “resinite”, reflecting its composition and formation. Amber starts out life as soft sticky tree resin but then under high temperature and pressure from overlying layers of soil, it fossilizes. The sticky resin can trap organisms or other plant matter, and this material can sometimes remain virtually intact inside the amber fossil giving us a unique gift from the past.

35. Somme summer : ETE
One might spend the summer (été) under the sun (le soleil) in France.

The Somme is a department in the very north of France, in the Picardy region. The Somme is famous as the site of devastating battles during WWI.

37. Global currency org. : IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was established at the end of 1945 with 29 major economies supporting and funding an effort to stabilize economies across the globe after WWII. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., today the IMF has 187 member countries.

47. Late-night host Jimmy : KIMMEL
Jimmy Kimmel is currently the host of the late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Kimmel also co-hosted “The Man Show” and my personal favorite, “Win Ben Stein’s Money”.

49. Revolutionary Guevara : CHE
Ernesto “Che” Guevara was born in Argentina, and in 1948 he started to study medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. While at school he satisfied his need to “see the world” by taking two long journeys around South America, the story of which are told in Guevara’s memoir later published as “The Motorcycle Diaries”. While travelling, Guevara was moved by the plight of the people he saw and their working conditions and what he viewed as capitalistic exploitation. In Mexico City he met brothers Raul and Fidel Castro and was persuaded to join their cause, the overthrow of the US-backed government in Cuba. He rose to second-in-command among the Cuban insurgents, and when Castro came to power Guevara was influential in repelling the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing Soviet nuclear missiles to the island. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to continue his work as a revolutionary. He was captured by Bolivian forces in 1967, and was executed. Fidel Castro led the public mourning of Guevara’s death, and soon the revolutionary was an icon for many left-wing movements around the world.

55. Alpha’s opposite : OMEGA
Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet and is the one that looks like a horseshoe. The word “omega” literally means “great O” (O-mega). Compare this with the Greek letter Omicron meaning “little O” (O-micron).

57. Teensy amount : IOTA
Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. We use the word “iota” to portray something very small as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.

58. Fargo’s st. : N DAK
The Dakota Territory was formed in 1861 and ceased to exist with the admission to the Union of the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. The territory was split into two states largely due to lobbying by the Republican Party, which enjoyed a lot of support in the Dakota Territory. The admission of two states added to the political power of the party in the US Senate, by adding four safe Republican seats.

Fargo, North Dakota is the biggest city in the state. The original name for the city was Centralia, when it was a stopping point for steamboats that traveled the Red River in the late 19th century. The town really grew with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway, so the name “Fargo” was adopted in honor of one of the railroad company’s directors, William Fargo (of Wells Fargo Express fame).

59. Apples with screens : MACS
Macintosh (also “Mac”) is a line of computers from Apple Inc. The first Mac was introduced in 1984, and I remember someone showing me one at work in those early days of personal computing. There was a piece of white plastic connected to the main computer by a cord, and I was amazed when the guy showed me that it controlled where the cursor was on the screen. My colleague told me that the lump of plastic was called “a mouse” …

60. Karaoke prop : MIKE
“Kara-te”, means “open hand”, and the related word “kara-oke”, means “open orchestra”.

62. “__ we forget” : LEST
“Lest we forget” is an oft-quoted phrase, one that comes from a poem by Rudyard Kipling called “Recessional”. Kipling wrote the piece on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 as an expression of sadness at the waning of the British Empire. The phrase “lest we forget” is used in this context, a warning that the empire will decline. Ever since WWI we’ve been using the same words on memorials as a plea not forget the sacrifices made by others in the past.

63. Ryan of “Sleepless in Seattle” : MEG
Meg Ryan is the stage name of the actress Margaret Mary Hyra. Ryan’s big break came with the excellent 1989 movie “When Harry Met Sally” from which she went on to star in some of the greatest romantic comedies ever made.

“Sleepless in Seattle” is a lovely romantic comedy directed and co-written by Nora Ephron, released in 1993. The film’s storyline is based on the excellent 1957 movie “An Affair to Remember”, and there are numerous direct references to the Cary Grant/Deborah Kerr classic throughout the “remake”. The lead roles in “Sleepless …” are played by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

64. Hosp. scan : MRI
A CT (or “CAT”) scan produces (via computer manipulation) a three dimensional image of the inside of an object, usually the human body. It does so by taking a series of two dimensional x-ray images while rotating the camera around the patient. The issue with CT scans is that they use x-rays, and high doses of radiation can be harmful causing damage that is cumulative over time. An MRI on the other hand (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), uses powerful magnetic fields to generate its images so there is no exposure to ionizing radiation (such as X-rays). We used MRI equipment in our chemistry labs at school, way back in the days when the technology was still called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Apparently the marketing folks didn’t like the term “nuclear” because of its association with atomic bombs, so now it’s just called MRI.

65. 1,000 G’s : MIL
Numbers were another thing that caused me problems when I moved to the US. Where I come from, a thousand million is just that, a thousand million, whereas in the US that’s a billion. All the names for numbers bigger than a US billion are different than in Europe. What’s called a quintillion here (a million x a trillion US) we just call a trillion.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Paper used for envelopes : MANILA
7. Teensy kitchen invader : ANT
10. Thick-bodied river fish : CHUB
14. Lessened : ABATED
15. Critical hosp. area : ICU
16. Take down with a wrecking ball : RAZE
17. Trade for cash : REDEEM
18. Musical based on ABBA songs : MAMMA MIA
20. Golfer Snead’s nickname : SLAMMIN’ SAMMY
22. “I don’t care which” : ANY
23. Naval petty officer : YEOMAN
27. Lasting mark : SCAR
30. __ and gown : CAP
33. John, Paul, George or Ringo : NAME
34. Go without food : STARVE
36. “True __”: Wayne film : GRIT
39. CFO’s degree : MBA
40. One on a board : COMMITTEE MEMBER
43. Swiss peak : ALP
44. Gas in a sign : NEON
45. Knocks for a loop : FLOORS
46. Scallion relative : LEEK
48. Space-saving abbr. : ETC
50. Team statistic : LOSS
51. Finale : ENDING
54. Selling fast : HOT
56. Whale or dolphin : MARINE MAMMAL
63. Campbell’s soup slogan, and a hint to the puzzle theme found in 18-, 20-, 40- and 56-Across : MMMM GOOD
66. “Seinfeld” woman : ELAINE
67. Albany’s canal : ERIE
68. Actress Hagen : UTA
69. Sticky-toed lizards : GECKOS
70. Tadpole’s breathing organ : GILL
71. LPGA star Se Ri __ : PAK
72. Be agreeable : ASSENT

Down
1. Red planet : MARS
2. Ill-fated Biblical brother : ABEL
3. Diddly, to Dalí : NADA
4. To-do list entry : ITEM
5. Oscar winner for “Cat Ballou” : LEE MARVIN
6. Part of FDA: Abbr. : ADMIN
7. Gets in one’s sights, with “at” : AIMS
8. Campus sports org. : NCAA
9. Tot’s belly : TUMMY
10. Tot’s drawing tool : CRAYON
11. Clumsy actor : HAM
12. Special forces weapon : UZI
13. Arthur who played Maude : BEA
19. Marseille Mrs. : MME
21. The Big Apple, initially : NYC
24. Latin ballroom dances : MAMBOS
25. Orange-yellow gemstones : AMBERS
26. Gets warmer, in a game : NEARS
27. Taken in a break-in : STOLEN
28. Slept next to the trail, say : CAMPED
29. Upper limb : ARM
31. Sales rep : AGENT
32. Opposite of post- : PRE-
34. Weighing device : SCALE
35. Somme summer : ETE
37. Global currency org. : IMF
38. Stretch the truth : TELL TALES
41. Bathwater tester : TOE
42. Dairy farm sound : MOO
47. Late-night host Jimmy : KIMMEL
49. Revolutionary Guevara : CHE
52. Inveterate faultfinder : NAG
53. Word with hug or therapy : GROUP
55. Alpha’s opposite : OMEGA
57. Teensy amount : IOTA
58. Fargo’s st. : N DAK
59. Apples with screens : MACS
60. Karaoke prop : MIKE
61. Many a folk song, composer-wise: Abbr. : ANON
62. “__ we forget” : LEST
63. Ryan of “Sleepless in Seattle” : MEG
64. Hosp. scan : MRI
65. 1,000 G’s : MIL

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