LA Times Crossword Answers 13 Jun 13, Thursday

CROSSWORD SETTER: Julian Lim
THEME: Punny and Sporty … each of today’s themed clues are sports-related, and are cryptic references to the answers:

17A. Tennis player’s meal request? COURT ORDER
20A. Ping-Pong player’s etiquette? TABLE MANNERS
36A. Runner’s music choice? TRACK RECORD
53A. Golfer’s bank advance? COURSE CREDIT
58A. Football player’s map? FIELD GUIDE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 13m 23s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Desktop offering an AppleCare warranty IMAC
The iMac is a desktop computer platform from Apple introduced in 1998. One of the main features of the iMac is an “all-in-one” design, with the computer console and monitor integrated.

14. Wine lover’s destination NAPA
Apparently the name “Napa” comes from the Native American Patwin word “napo” meaning “house”.

15. Micronesian nation once called Pleasant Island NAURU
Nauru is the world’s smallest island nation, located in the South Pacific 300 km to the east of Kiribati. The island was taken as a colony by Germany in the late 1800s, and came under the administration of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom after WWI. The Japanese invaded during WWII, but Nauru was one of the islands that was bypassed in the US advance across the Pacific towards Japan. Nauru achieved independence in 1968.

16. San __, Italy REMO
The Italian city of San Remo sits on the Mediterranean, right on the border with France. In Italian the city is named Sanremo, just one word, although the spelling of “San Remo” dates back to ancient times.

20. Ping-Pong player’s etiquette? TABLE MANNERS
Ping-pong is called table tennis in the UK, where the sport originated in the 1880s. Table tennis started as an after-dinner activity among the elite, and was called “wiff-waff”. To play the game, books were stacked in the center of a table as a “net”, two more books served as “”rackets” and the ball used was actually a golf ball. The game evolved over time with the rackets being upgraded to the lids of cigar boxes and the ball becoming a champagne cork (how snooty is that?). Eventually the game was produced commercially, and the sound of the ball hitting the racket was deemed to be a “ping” and a “pong”, giving the sport its alternative name.

22. Worshipers of Quetzalcoatl AZTECS
The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl’s name mean “feathered serpent”.

25. Fry’s former BBC comedy partner LAURIE
English actor and comedian Hugh Laurie was half of a comedy double act with Stephen Fry called simply “Fry and Laurie”. Fry and Laurie met in Cambridge University through their mutual friend, the actress Emma Thompson.

I think that “House” is one of the best shows made by Fox television. It is fun for me to see English actor Hugh Laurie in the title role as coming from the other side of the Atlantic I have been watching him in various comedic roles for decades. Famously he played Bertie Wooster opposite Stephen Fry in P.G. Wodehouse’s “Jeeves & Wooster”, as well as one of the bumbling “bad guys” in “101 Dalmatians” (the version starring Glenn Close).

26. Renaissance painter Uccello PAOLO
Paolo Uccello was a an Italian painter, as well as a mathematician. As such, Uccello is well noted for his work on visual perspective in the world of art. His paintings had a sense of depth, setting him apart from his contemporaries. Uccello’s most famous work is “The Battle of San Romano”, a work divided into three large panels. Today, you’ve got to travel to see all three panels; one is in London, one in Paris, and one in Florence.

30. Close of “Albert Nobbs” GLENN
Glenn Close a wonderful actress who has played many varied roles, but is well known for her portrayals of less than wholesome characters. She play the crazy Alex Forrest in “Fatal Attraction”, and Cruella de Vil in “101 Dalmatians”. Now she has a regular role on a TV show called “Damages”. Glenn Close is an avid fan of the New York Mets, and regularly sings the national anthem before games.

“Albert Nobbs” is a 2011 drama starring Glenn Close that is based on a novella by George Moore, the Irish writer. I found this movie to be a little slow, although Glenn Close was marvelous as usual. The storyline is fascinating, about a woman living as a man (Albert Nobbs) in order to get work in 19th-century Ireland.

31. Coin first minted in 13th-century France ECU
The ecu was an Old French coin. The word “ecu” comes from the Latin “scutum” meaning “shield”. The original ecu had a coat of arms on it, a shield.

32. Movie trainer of Daniel-san MIYAGI
The 1984 film “The Karate Kid” starred Ralph Macchio in the title role, with Pat Morita playing the enigmatic karate teacher Mr. Miyagi. There is an excellent 2010 remake, starring Jaden Smith (Will Smith’s son) as the Karate Kid himself, with Jackie Chan playing the teacher.

39. Grammy winner Erykah BADU
Erykah Badu is the stage name of Erica Wright, an American “neo-soul” singer. Badu gained some notoriety in March of 2010 when she shot a scene for a music video in Dallas. In the scene, she walks to the spot where President Kennedy was assassinated, removing her clothes until she is nude, and then falls to the ground as if she has been shot in the head. For that stunt she was charged with disorderly conduct.

47. Old speedster SST
The most famous Supersonic Transport (SST) was the Concorde, a plane that’s no longer flying. Concorde had that famous “droop nose”. The nose was moved to the horizontal position during flight to create the optimum aerodynamic shape thereby reducing drag. It was lowered during taxi, takeoff and landing, so that the pilot had better visibility. The need for the droop nose was driven largely by the delta-shaped wings. The delta wing necessitates a higher angle of attack at takeoff and landing than conventional wing designs, so the pilot needed the nose lowered so that he or she could see the ground.

48. Bath-loving Muppet ERNIE
I’ve always believed that the “Sesame Street” characters Bert and Ernie were named after two roles played in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. In the movie, the policeman’s name is Bert and his taxi-driving buddy is named Ernie. However, the “Sesame Street” folks have stated that the use of the same names is just a coincidence.

57. Ovid’s others ALII
The Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso is today known simply as Ovid. Ovid is usually listed alongside the two other great Roman poets: Horace and Virgil.

66. Event with buckjumpers RODEO
A “buckjumper” is a horse or other animal that leps in an upward direction while arching its back. An example of a buckjumper would be a horse trying to unseat its rider at a rodeo.

Down
1. IRS concern INC
Income (inc.)

2. Familiar face in Tiananmen Square MAO
Tiananmen Square is located in the center of Beijing, China. It is the third largest city square in the world, after Merdeka Square in Jakarta, Indonesia and Praça dos Girassóis in Palmas, Brazil. Tiananmen Square can hold up to 600,000 people.

3. Homer’s doughnut supplier APU
The fictional Kwik-E-Mart store is operated by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on “The Simpsons” TV show. The convenience store owner doesn’t seem to be making much use of his Ph.D in computer science that he earned in the US. Apu’s undergraduate degree is from Caltech (the Calcutta Technical Institute), where he graduated top of his class of seven million students …

4. Trustbuster’s target CARTEL
A trust-buster is someone who works to uphold antitrust law, law that promotes market competition by regulating anti-competitive actions taken by companies.

5. High-horse sorts SNOBS
Back in the 1780s, a “snob” was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.

6. Rank above viscount EARL
In the ranking of nobles, an earl comes above a viscount and below a marquess. The rank of earl is used in the British peerage system and is equivalent to the rank of count in other countries. Other British ranks have female forms (e.g. marquess and marchioness, viscount and viscountess), but there isn’t a female word for the rank of earl. A female given the same rank as an earl is known simply as a countess.

7. Feature of Manet’s “The Luncheon on the Grass” NUDE
The French painter Édouard Manet is responsible for many great works including “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe” (The Luncheon on the Grass”) , a work you can see in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

8. Provo neighbor OREM
Orem, Utah was originally known as “Sharon” (a Biblical name), then “Provo Bench”, and in 1914 it was given the family name of a local railroad operator called “Orem”. Orem gave itself the nickname “Family City USA” and sure enough in 2010, “Forbes” rated Orem the 5th best place in the country to raise a family.

Provo, Utah is a city located just over 40 miles south of South Lake City. Provo is home to Brigham Young University. The city was originally called Fort Utah, and the name was changed to Provo in 1850 in honor of Étienne Provost. Provost was a French-Canadian fur trader who is thought to have been the first man of European descent to see the Great Salt Lake.

9. Bucolic RURAL
The word “bucolic”, meaning rustic or rural, comes to us from the Greek word for a “cowherd”, “boukolos”.

12. Language family spanning two continents AMERIND
The Amerind peoples are the indigenous people of the Americas. “Amerind” is a portmanteau of the words “American” and “indigenous”.

18. Washington city TACOMA
Tacoma is a city on Puget Sound in the state of Washington. The city took its name from Mount Rainier that is nearby, as the peak used to be known as Mount Tahoma.

23. Tween heartthrob Efron ZAC
Zac Efron is an actor from San Luis Obispo, California. Apparently Efron is a heartthrob to “tweenyboppers”. His big break was in the Disney hit movie “High School Musical”.

24. Immediately TOUT DE SUITE
“Tout de suite” is French for “immediately”.

27. Little ones TYKES
“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.

33. Freud’s I ICH
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist, and founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry. His native language was German, and so he used “Ich” to say “I”.

34. Fifi’s here ICI
“Ici” is French for “here”.

40. Biological rings AREOLAE
An areola (sometimes “areole”) in anatomy is a small ring of color, as in the areola surrounding the nipple, and the areola surrounding the pupil of the eye. “Areola” comes from Latin, meaning “small open space”, and is a diminutive of the Latin word “area”, meaning “open space”.

55. Like many snowbirds: Abbr. RETD
Snowbirds are people from Canada and the northern US who head south for the winter, to places like Florida and California.

56. Wiesel who wrote “The Night Trilogy” ELIE
Elie Wiesel is a holocaust survivor, best known for his book “Night” that tells of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

61. Brownie, for one ELF
A brownie is an elfen figure in Scottish and English folklore. Brownies are purported to live in houses, helping with work around the house, but only at night when they can’t be seen. Believers might leave small items of food for the brownies, to encourage them to help out.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Desktop offering an AppleCare warranty IMAC
5. Man of la casa SENOR
10. Chew GNAW
14. Wine lover’s destination NAPA
15. Micronesian nation once called Pleasant Island NAURU
16. San __, Italy REMO
17. Tennis player’s meal request? COURT ORDER
19. Announce assuredly AVER
20. Ping-Pong player’s etiquette? TABLE MANNERS
22. Worshipers of Quetzalcoatl AZTECS
25. Fry’s former BBC comedy partner LAURIE
26. Renaissance painter Uccello PAOLO
27. Genuine article? THE
30. Close of “Albert Nobbs” GLENN
31. Coin first minted in 13th-century France ECU
32. Movie trainer of Daniel-san MIYAGI
35. Clause joiners ANDS
36. Runner’s music choice? TRACK RECORD
39. Grammy winner Erykah BADU
41. Corners HEMS IN
42. Producer of wall flowers IVY
45. Area of activity ARENA
47. Old speedster SST
48. Bath-loving Muppet ERNIE
50. Make even smoother RESAND
52. Span that can’t be shrunk AGE GAP
53. Golfer’s bank advance? COURSE CREDIT
57. Ovid’s others ALII
58. Football player’s map? FIELD GUIDE
62. “Oh, criminy!” RATS!
63. Totally enjoy something, with “up” EAT IT
64. Muddy up ROIL
65. Quest after SEEK
66. Event with buckjumpers RODEO
67. “__ said!” NUFF

Down
1. IRS concern INC
2. Familiar face in Tiananmen Square MAO
3. Homer’s doughnut supplier APU
4. Trustbuster’s target CARTEL
5. High-horse sorts SNOBS
6. Rank above viscount EARL
7. Feature of Manet’s “The Luncheon on the Grass” NUDE
8. Provo neighbor OREM
9. Bucolic RURAL
10. Like table salt GRANULAR
11. Interminable NEVER-ENDING
12. Language family spanning two continents AMERIND
13. Declines WORSENS
18. Washington city TACOMA
21. Badger NAG
22. Copycat APE
23. Tween heartthrob Efron ZAC
24. Immediately TOUT DE SUITE
27. Little ones TYKES
28. Damages HARMS
29. Spew out EGEST
33. Freud’s I ICH
34. Fifi’s here ICI
37. Gamble RUN A RISK
38. Small flash drive capacity ONE GIG
39. Where some commuters unwind BAR CARS
40. Biological rings AREOLAE
43. Flight connection word VIA
44. “Sure thing!” YEP!
46. A or B on a test, maybe: Abbr. ANS
49. E-filed document RETURN
51. Shelve DEFER
52. Increase ADD TO
54. “Later!” CIAO!
55. Like many snowbirds: Abbr. RETD
56. Wiesel who wrote “The Night Trilogy” ELIE
59. Promising paper IOU
60. Brief dissimilarity DIF
61. Brownie, for one ELF

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