LA Times Crossword Answers 7 Aug 13, Wednesday

CROSSWORD SETTER: Michael Dewey
THEME: Arf, arf … each of today’s themed answers ends with an “arf” sound (depending on how you pronounce such syllables, maybe “aff”). The fourth themed answer actually has two “arf” sounds:

17A. Hearty har-har BELLY LAUGH
26A. National Geographic’s first natural one appeared in 1914 COLOR PHOTOGRAPH
47A. Group on “The West Wing” WHITE HOUSE STAFF
62A. Container that holds two generous glasses of wine (as well as a double dose of this puzzle’s theme?) HALF CARAFE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 12m 24s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Shaving product “by Mennen” AFTA
Afta is an aftershave in the Mennen range of products that is owned by Colgate-Palmolive.

10. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” film JAWS
“Jaws” is a thrilling 1975 movie directed by Steven Spielberg that is based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. The film has a powerful cast, led by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. “Jaws” was perhaps the first “summer blockbuster” with the highest box office take in history, a record that stood until “Star Wars” was released two years later.

23. Profs’ protégés, briefly TAS
Teaching Assistants (TAs)

24. Prefix with trooper PARA-
The term “parachute” was coined by Frenchman François Blanchard, from “para-” meaning “defence against” and “chute” meaning “a fall”.

25. Its 2014 games will be held in Sochi, Rus. IOC
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894, and has its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Sochi is a city in the west of Russian on the Black Sea coast. It is the largest resort city in the whole country. Sochi is going to be pretty busy in the next few years. It will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix from 2014 as well as the 2018 World Cup in soccer.

26. National Geographic’s first natural one appeared in 1914 COLOR PHOTOGRAPH
The National Geographic Society started as a club for academics and wealthy people interested in travel, founded in 1888 in Washington, D.C. The society’s “National Geographic Magazine” was first published at the end of the same year. I’ve always thought it very cool that the logo of the society (you can see it on the National Geographic cable TV channel) is simply the rectangular yellow frame that appears in the margins around the front cover of the magazine.

31. The Cavaliers of the ACC UVA
The University of Virginia (UVA) was of course founded by Thomas Jefferson, who sat on the original Board of Visitors with former US Presidents James Madison and James Monroe. In fact, the original UVA campus was built on land that was once a farm belonging to President Monroe.

The University of Virginia (UVA) Cavaliers wear colors of orange and navy blue that were adopted in 1888, and were deliberately chosen as the same colors of Oxford University in England.

33. Cape near Cod ANN
Cape Ann is 30 miles north of Boston and is on the northernmost edge of Massachusetts Bay. The Cape was first mapped by the explorer John Smith. Early in his adventurous life Smith had been captured and enslaved by the Ottoman Empire. His “owner” in his days of slavery was a woman called Tragabigzanda, and apparently the slave and owner fell in love. What we know today as Cape Ann, Smith originally called Cape Tragabigzanda in her memory.

39. Legend with rackets ASHE
Arthur Ashe was a professional tennis player from Richmond, Virginia. In his youth, Ashe found himself having to travel great distances to play against Caucasian opponents due to the segregation that still existed in his home state. He was rewarded for his dedication by being selected for the 1963 US Davis Cup team, the first African American player to be so honored. Ashe continued to run into trouble because of his ethnicity though, and in 1968 was denied entry into South Africa to play in the South African Open. In 1979 Ashe suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery, with follow-up surgery four years later during which he contracted HIV from blood transfusions. Ashe passed away in 1993 due to complications from AIDS. Shortly afterwards, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.

42. “Silent” president Coolidge CAL
President Calvin Coolidge, the only US President to have been born on July 4th, was known as a man of few words. It was while he was serving as Vice-President in the administration of Warren G. Harding, that Coolidge earned the nickname “Silent Cal”. There is a famous story told about Coolidge’s reticence that I would love to think is true, attributed to the poet Dorothy Parker. Sitting beside him at dinner, she remarked to him, “Mr. Coolidge, I’ve made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you.” His famous reply: “You lose …”

44. Other, in Oaxaca OTRO
Oaxaca is a state in the southern part of Mexico on the Pacific coast. The state takes the name of Oaxaca, its largest city.

47. Group on “The West Wing” WHITE HOUSE STAFF
“The West Wing”, when it was being written by Aaron Sorkin, was such a fabulous television event. It is remarkable how quickly it went downhill after Sorkin moved on. Sorkin is also famous for having written the play “A Few Good Men”, and the screenplay for one of my favorite movies: “Charlie Wilson’s War”.

52. Carpooling letters HOV
In some parts of the country one sees high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV lanes), but out here in California, we call them carpool lanes.

54. Hawaiian tuna AHI
Yellowfin tuna is usually marketed as “ahi”, its Hawaiian name. Yellowfin tuna is one big fish, often weighing over 300 pounds.

61. Fifth-century pope LEO I
The first pope named Leo is now known as Pope Saint Leo the Great. Leo I is famous for meeting with the feared Attila the Hun and persuading him to turn back his invading force that was threatening to overrun Western Europe.

64. Month following Av ELUL
Elul is the month in the Hebrew calendar that occurs in August-September.

65. Pension law acronym ERISA
ERISA is the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, enacted in 1974. ERISA regulates the operation of a pension plan once it has been established. However, ERISA does not require that a pension plan be offered by an employer.

66. Soon ANON
“Anon” originally meant “at once” and evolved into today’s meaning of “soon” apparently just because the word was misused over time.

Down
1. French cleric ABBE
“Abbé” is the French word for an abbot.

3. Powder mineral TALC
Talc is a mineral, actually hydrated magnesium silicate. Talcum powder is composed of loose talc, although these days “baby powder” can also be cornstarch.

6. Literary collections ANAS
An ana (or plural “anas”) is a collection, perhaps of literature, that represents the character of a particular place or a person. Ana can be used as a noun or as a suffix (e.g. Americana).

7. VW preceders? STU
In the alphabet, the letters STU precede the letters VW.

9. Suzuki with 10 MLB Gold Gloves ICHIRO
Ichiro Suzuki plays baseball for the New York Yankees. Suzuki holds quite a few batting records including the single-season record for base hits (262). Ichiro Suzuki is a huge celebrity in his native-Japan. His agent says that if you address fan mail to “Ichiro Suzuki, Japan”, he’ll get your letter …

10. Bean-based beverage JAVA
Back in 1850, the name “java” was given to a type of coffee grown on the island of Java, and the usage of the term spread from there.

11. Indian Ocean arm ARABIAN SEA
The Arabian Sea is an arm of the Indian Ocean that lies off the south coasts of Pakistan and Iran, and is bounded in the west by Somalia, and in the east by India.

13. Valedictorian’s big moment SPEECH
A valediction is an act of taking one’s leave, from the Latin “vale dicere”, to say farewell. An example of a valediction would be the words “yours truly” at the end of a letter. And of course, the valedictorian (here in the US anyway) is the student in a graduating class that is chosen to say the final words at the graduation ceremony, a farewell to the classmates.

22. Sitar music RAGA
Raga isn’t really a type of music, but has been described as the “tonal framework” in which Indian classical music is composed. Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous raga virtuoso (to us Westerners).

The sitar has been around since the Middle Ages. The sitar is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking, and is used most often in Hindustani classical music. In the West we have been exposed to the instrument largely through the performances of Ravi Shankar and some music by George Harrison of the Beatles, a onetime student of Shankar.

29. Otto I’s realm: Abbr. HRE
The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) existed from 962 to 1806 AD and was a territory of varying size over the centuries that centered on the Kingdom of Germany. The HRE was a successor to the western half of the Ancient Roman Empire.

Otto I the Great ruled the Holy Roman Empire in the 10th century.

30. Genetic material RNA
Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by what is called transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA.

35. Kit __ Klub: “Cabaret” setting KAT
The musical “Cabaret” is based on “I Am a Camera”, a 1951 play written by John Van Druten, which itself was adapted from a novel “Goodbye to Berlin” written by Christopher Isherwood. “Cabaret” is a great musical, although the 1972 film of the musical isn’t one of my favorites.

40. Playboy nickname HEF
Hugh Hefner is from Chicago. His first publishing job was in the military, where he worked as a writer for a US Army newspaper from 1944-46. He went to college after his military service and then worked as a copywriter for “Esquire” magazine. He left “Esquire” to found his own publication that he called “Playboy”, which first hit the newsstands in 1953. “Playboy” has been around ever since.

41. Rivendell dweller ELF
Rivendell is a location occupied by Elves in Middle-earth, the fictional realm created by novelist J. R. R. Tolkien.

43. Mother of Helen of Troy LEDA
In Greek mythology, Leda was the beautiful Queen of Sparta who was seduced by Zeus when he took the form of a swan. Leda produced two eggs from the union. One egg hatched into the beautiful Helen, later to be known as Helen of Troy and over whom the Trojan War was fought. The other egg hatched into the twins Castor and Pollux. Castor and Pollux had different fathers according to the myth. Pollux was the son of Zeus and was immortal, while Castor was the son of Leda’s earthly husband, and so he was a mortal. William Butler Yeats wrote a famous sonnet called “Leda and the Swan” in 1924.

45. Milo of the movies O’SHEA
Milo O’Shea was a great Irish character actor from Dublin who has appeared in everything from “Romeo and Juliet” to “The West Wing”. Sadly, O’Shea passed away in 2013 in New York City.

50. 1998 PGA Player of the Year Mark O’MEARA
Mark O’Meara is an American golfer from Goldsboro, North Carolina. He is known as one of the American players who competes in international tournaments more than most, and has a reputation as a real gentleman all around the world.

58. iPod mini successor NANO
The iPod Nano is the successor to the iPod Mini and was introduced to the market at the end of 2005. There have been five versions of the Nano to date and the current Nano as well as playing tunes is an FM player, records voice memos, and even has a pedometer!

63. Fashion’s Claiborne LIZ
Liz Claiborne was a Belgian American fashion designer and founder of the Liz Claiborne fashion company. Claiborne was the first woman to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Shaving product “by Mennen” AFTA
5. Deep voices BASSI
10. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” film JAWS
14. Talk too much BLAB
15. Class clown’s bit ANTIC
16. Give __: care A RAP
17. Hearty har-har BELLY LAUGH
19. Low-lying area VALE
20. Surpasses EXCEEDS
21. Qualified for the position HIRABLE
23. Profs’ protégés, briefly TAS
24. Prefix with trooper PARA-
25. Its 2014 games will be held in Sochi, Rus. IOC
26. National Geographic’s first natural one appeared in 1914 COLOR PHOTOGRAPH
31. The Cavaliers of the ACC UVA
32. Average amount NORM
33. Cape near Cod ANN
34. Savor the sun BASK
36. Halfhearted TEPID
39. Legend with rackets ASHE
42. “Silent” president Coolidge CAL
44. Other, in Oaxaca OTRO
46. Slippery one EEL
47. Group on “The West Wing” WHITE HOUSE STAFF
52. Carpooling letters HOV
53. Loses luster DIMS
54. Hawaiian tuna AHI
55. Do impressions of IMITATE
57. “All kidding aside” I MEAN IT
61. Fifth-century pope LEO I
62. Container that holds two generous glasses of wine (as well as a double dose of this puzzle’s theme?) HALF CARAFE
64. Month following Av ELUL
65. Pension law acronym ERISA
66. Soon ANON
67. Method: Abbr. SYST
68. Device used before applying 1-Across RAZOR
69. Ilk SORT

Down
1. French cleric ABBE
2. Move a muscle FLEX
3. Powder mineral TALC
4. Can, after “is” ABLE TO
5. Where there’s no hair apparent BALD SPOT
6. Literary collections ANAS
7. VW preceders? STU
8. Show exasperation toward SIGH AT
9. Suzuki with 10 MLB Gold Gloves ICHIRO
10. Bean-based beverage JAVA
11. Indian Ocean arm ARABIAN SEA
12. Long homer, say WALLOP
13. Valedictorian’s big moment SPEECH
18. Hanker (for) YEARN
22. Sitar music RAGA
24. Like some 13-Downs POMPOUS
26. Babe in the woods CUB
27. Egg cells OVA
28. Lewd LASCIVIOUS
29. Otto I’s realm: Abbr. HRE
30. Genetic material RNA
35. Kit __ Klub: “Cabaret” setting KAT
37. “__ now or never” IT’S
38. Ideal wheels DREAM CAR
40. Playboy nickname HEF
41. Rivendell dweller ELF
43. Mother of Helen of Troy LEDA
45. Milo of the movies O’SHEA
47. Makes pass, as time, with “away” WHILES
48. Hardly handsome HOMELY
49. __ and yon HITHER
50. 1998 PGA Player of the Year Mark O’MEARA
51. Pageant toppers TIARAS
56. Lean TILT
57. “Should that be true …” IF SO
58. iPod mini successor NANO
59. “__ one, think that …” I FOR
60. Camper’s shelter TENT
63. Fashion’s Claiborne LIZ

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