LA Times Crossword Answers 29 Oct 13, Tuesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: David Steinberg
THEME: Sounds Like a Vowel Progression … today’s themed answers end with -FLx, where “x’ represents the sound of a vowel. We progress through the five regular vowel sounds as we go from top to bottom of the grid:

17A. Food Network’s “Throwdown!” host BOBBY FLAY (fl-A)
24A. ’60s song about an insect who “hid / Inside a doggie from Madrid” SPANISH FLEA (fl-E)
41A. 1996 R. Kelly hit I BELIEVE I CAN FLY (fl-I)
51A. Difference between money coming in and money being spent NET CASH FLOW (fl-O)
66A. Contagious dog malady CANINE FLU (fl-U … well, “fl-oo”!)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 05m 14s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Tom, Ma or Pa, in “The Grapes of Wrath” JOAD
John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” is set during the Great Depression. The novel tells the story of the Joad family from Oklahoma, farmers who had to leave their home and head for California due to economic hardship.

9. Greek i’s IOTAS
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.

16. Russian currency RUBLE
The ruble (also “rouble”) is the unit of currency in Russia, as well as several other countries of the former Soviet Union. One ruble is divided into one hundred kopecks.

17. Food Network’s “Throwdown!” host BOBBY FLAY (fl-A)
Bobby Flay is a celebrity chef who has hosted several shows on the Food Network. Flay is also an Iron Chef on the show “Iron Chef America”, which also airs on the Food Network.

23. Skin care brand OLAY
Oil of Olay was developed in South Africa in 1949. When Oil of Olay was introduced internationally, it was given slightly different brand names designed to appeal in the different geographies. In Ireland we know it as Oil of Ulay, for example, and in France it is Oil of Olaz.

24. ’60s song about an insect who “hid / Inside a doggie from Madrid” SPANISH FLEA (fl-E)
“Spanish Flea” is a song from the sixties that was composed by Julius Wechter with lyrics by his wife Cissy Wechter. The song is best-known as an instrumental, a number one hit for Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass in 1965.

32. Villainous Norse god in the 2012 film “The Avengers” LOKI
Loki is a god appearing in Norse mythology. In one story about Loki, he was punished by other gods for having caused the death of Baldr, the god of light and beauty. Loki was bound to a sharp rock using the entrails of one of his sons. A serpent drips venom which is collected in a bowl, and then Loki’s wife must empty the venom onto her husband when the bowl is full. The venom causes Loki great pain, and his writhing causes the earthquakes that we poor humans have to endure.

“The Avengers” is a 2012 movie that features a whole load of superheroes (Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk and Thor) battling a supervillain called Loki.

41. 1996 R. Kelly hit I BELIEVE I CAN FLY (fl-I)
“I Believe I Can Fly” is a 1996 hit that was written and performed by R&B singer R. Kelly. Notably, the song was used in the 1996 film “Space Jam”.

R. Kelly is the stage name of R&B singer Robert Kelly from Chicago. R. Kelly was named by “Billboard” as the most successful R&B singer in the past 25 years, and so I guess he has earned his nickname “King of R&B”. Kelly ran into some problems in the press when it was revealed that he had married singer Aaliyah when she was just 15 and Kelly was 27-years-old.

45. Sesame Street giggler ELMO
The man behind/under the character Elmo on “Sesame Street” is Kevin Clash. If you want to learn more about Elmo and Clash, you can watch the 2011 documentary “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey”.

47. Singer Sumac YMA
Yma Sumac was a Peruvian soprano. Sumac had a notable vocal range of five octaves.

57. Grand Ole __ OPRY
“The Grand Ole Opry” started out as a radio show in 1925 originally called the WSM “Barn Dance”. In 1927, the “Barn Dance” radio show was broadcast in a slot after an NBC production called “Musical Appreciation Hour”, a collection of classical works including Grand Opera. In a December show, the host of “Barn Dance” announced, “For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the ‘Grand Ole Opry'”. That name was used for the radio show from then on.

58. Beverage nut KOLA
The nut of the kola tree has a bitter taste, and is loaded with caffeine. Despite the taste, the nut is habitually chewed in some cultures, especially in West Africa where the tree is commonly found in the rainforest. Of course in the US we best know the kola nut as a flavoring used in cola drinks.

59. Newton with laws ISAAC
Sir Isaac Newton was of course one of the most influential people in history, the man who laid the groundwork for all of classical mechanics. The story about an apple falling on his head, inspiring him to formulate his theories about gravity, well that’s not quite true. Newton often told the story about observing an apple falling in his mother’s garden and how this made him acutely aware of the Earth’s gravitational pull. However, he made no mention of the apple hitting him on the head.

66. Contagious dog malady CANINE FLU (fl-U … well, “fl-oo”!)
Canine flu is a relatively new disease that first came to attention with an outbreak at a Florida dog racing track in 2004. Subsequent testing showed that the virus causing the disease has been around at least since 1999. Although canine flu is very contagious and causes a dog to be very ill for 10-30 days, it is not usually fatal.

69. SOS responder USCG
The US Coast Guard (USCG) has the distinction of being the country’s oldest continuous seagoing service. The USCG was founded as the Revenue Cutter Service by Alexander Hamilton in 1790.

70. Fast horse ARAB
The Arab (or Arabian) breed of horse takes its name from its original home, the Arabian Peninsula. Like any animal that humans have over-bred, the horse falls prey to genetic diseases, some of which are fatal and some of which require the horse to be euthanized.

71. Bridge predecessor WHIST
Whist is an English card game that involves the taking of tricks. Whist is a derivative of the earlier game of Trump or Ruff that was played in the 16th century. Back in Ireland, where I come from, whist tournaments are extremely popular and are known as “whist drives”.

72. Stadium that hosted a 1965 Beatles concert SHEA
The Beatles concert tour of 1965 was the band’s second, after the phenomenal success of their debut appearances in America the prior year. The opening engagement was at Shea Stadium, a concert at which the Beatles only played for 30 minutes. The audience of over 55,000 people set a new record for concert attendance, as did the gate of $304,000 (seems small now, huh?). The amplifiers in the stadium were completely overpowered by the noise of the crowd, and the Fab Four literally couldn’t hear themselves sing. At one point John Lennon just started goofing around as no one could hear the music, and starting playing keyboards with his elbows!

Down
2. Febreze target ODOR
The odor eliminating product we know today as Febreze was developed in England in the early nineties, and is now produced by Product & Gamble.

3. “Fantastic Four” actress Jessica ALBA
Actress Jessica Alba got her big break when she was cast in the Fox science fiction show “Dark Angel”. Alba had a tough life growing up as she spent a lot of time in hospital and so found it difficult to develop friendships. As a youngster she twice had a collapsed lung, frequently caught pneumonia, suffered from asthma, had a ruptured appendix and a tonsillar cyst. On top of all that she acknowledges that she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child. It seems that she has really turned her life around …

“Fantastic Four” is a 2005 movie about the band of comic heroes made famous in Marvel Comics. The Fantastic Four are:

– Mr. Fantastic (played by Ioan Gruffudd)
– The Invisible Woman (played by Jessica Alba)
– The Human Torch (played by Chris Evans)
– Thing (played by Michael Chiklis)

4. Society newbies DEBS
Deb is short for “debutante”, which translates from French as “female beginner”.

5. Frequency between 300 and 3,000 MHz UHF
The radio spectrum is divided into bands based on frequency. “High band” is composed of relatively high frequency values, and “low band” is composed of frequencies that are relatively low. FM radio falls into the band called Very High Frequency, or VHF. Television signals use frequencies even higher than VHF, frequencies in the Ultra High Frequency band (UHF). AM radio uses lower frequencies that fall into the relatively low bands of Low, Medium and High Frequency (LF, MF, and HF).

6. Island nation near Sicily MALTA
The island state of Malta is relatively small, but its large number of inhabitants makes it one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. Malta’s strategic location has made it a prized possession for the conquering empires of the world. Most recently it was part of the British Empire and was an important fleet headquarters. Malta played a crucial role for the Allies during WWII as it was located very close to the Axis shipping lanes in the Mediterranean. The Siege of Malta lasted from 1940 to 1942, a prolonged attack by the Italians and Germans on the RAF and Royal Navy, and the people of Malta. When the siege was lifted, King George VI awarded the George Cross to the people of Malta collectively in recognition of their heroism and devotion to the Allied cause. The George Cross can still be seen on the Maltese flag, even though Britain granted Malta independence in 1964.

9. Org. that’s the target of April glowers IRS
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was set up during the Civil War to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.

A “glower” is an angry or sullen look.

22. PC bailout key ESC
Escape (Esc)

26. Hawaiian dance HULA
Hula is the name of the Polynesian dance. The chant or song that the dance illustrates, that’s known as the mele.

28. Vagabond HOBO
No one seems to know for sure how the term “hobo” originated, although there are lots of colorful theories. My favorite is that “hobo” comes from the first letters in the words “ho-meward bo-und”, but it doesn’t seem very plausible. A kind blog reader tells me that according to Click and Clack from PBS’s “Car Talk” (a great source!), “hobo” comes from “hoe boy”. Hoe boys were young men with hoes looking for work after the Civil War. Hobos differed from “tramps” and “bums”, in that “bums” refused to work, “tramps” worked when they had to, while “hobos” traveled in search of work.

A “vagabond” is a person without a home who moves from place to place. The term derives from the Latin “vagabundus” meaning “wandering, strolling about”.

29. 26-Down instruments UKES
The ukulele originated in the 1800s and mimics a small guitar brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants.

30. Hannah Montana portrayer MILEY CYRUS
Miley Cyrus became famous playing the Disney Channel character “Hannah Montana”. Miley is of course the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. When she was born, Billy Ray and his wife named their daughter “Destiny Hope”, but soon they themselves calling her “Smiley” as she was always smiling as a baby, and this got shortened to Miley over time. Cute …

34. Eden outcast EVE
In the Christian tradition, the “fall of man” took place in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, against the bidding of God. As a result, Adam and Eve were banished from Eden to prevent them becoming immortal by eating from the tree of life. The first humans had transitioned from a state of innocent obedience to a state of guilty disobedience.

35. Poivre companion SEL
In French, one might season one’s food with salt (sel) and pepper (poivre).

36. Duncan of the NBA’s Spurs TIM
Tim Duncan is professional basketball player from La Croix in the US Virgin Islands. Duncan was a natural swimmer with his eyes on the 1992 Olympic Games. He was forced to turn his attention to basketball when Hurricane Hugo destroyed St. Croix’s only Olympic-sized pool in 1989.

38. Usually fuzzy tabloid pics UFOS
In 1952, the USAF revived its studies of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in a program called Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book ran from 1952 until it was shut down in 1969 with the conclusion that there was no threat to national security and that there were no sightings that could not be explained within the bounds of modern scientific knowledge.

“Tabloid” is the trademarked name (owned by Burroughs, Wellcome and Co,) for a “small tablet of medicine”, a name that goes back to 1884. The word “tabloid” had entered into general use to mean a compressed form of anything, and by the early 1900s was used in “tabloid journalism”, applied to newspapers that had short, condensed articles and stories printed on smaller sheets of paper.

42. Culinary maven Rombauer IRMA
Irma Rombauer was the author of the famous cookbook “The Joy Of Cooking”. Rombauer self-published the book back in 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri. She and her family continued to publish privately as demand was high, and then a commercial printing house picked it up in 1936. “The Joy of Cooking” has been in print continuously ever since.

43. Denver’s st. COLO
Denver, Colorado is nicknamed the “Mile-High City” because its official elevation is listed as exactly one mile. Denver City was founded in 1858 as a mining town. The name was chosen in honor of the Kansas Territorial Governor at the time, James W. Denver.

52. Pleistocene, e.g. EPOCH
The Pleistocene epoch lasted from about 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, and is associated with the most recent period of repeated glaciations. The name “Pleistocene” translates as “newest”. This name was chosen as the name of the preceding Pliocene epoch translates as “newer”. The name of the subsequent Holocene epoch (which extends right up to today) translates as “entirely new”.

53. “Baywatch” actress Bingham TRACI
Actress and model Traci Bingham played Jordan Tate on “Baywatch” from 1996 to 1998.

54. Magician’s opening HOCUS
There appears to be a lot of speculation about the origin of the magician’s phrase “hocus pocus”, but nothing stands out to me as being very clear.

62. Arkin of “Argo” ALAN
The actor Alan Arkin won his only Oscar (Best Supporting Actor) for his role in “Little Miss Sunshine” from 2006, a movie that I just did not understand …

“Argo” is a 2012 movie that is based on the true story of the rescue of six diplomats hiding out during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The film was directed by and stars Ben Affleck and is produced by Grant Heslov and George Clooney, the same pair who produced the excellent “Good Night, and Good Luck”. I saw “Argo” recently and recommend it highly, although I found the scenes of religious fervor pretty frightening …

65. 2000 Richard Gere role DR T
The 2000 movie “Dr. T & the Women” is a pretty good film, starring Richard Gere in the title role. There can’t be many romantic comedies about gynecologists …

Richard Gere has played such great roles on the screen, and I find him to be a very interesting character off the screen. Gere has been studying Buddhism since 1978 and is a very visible supporter of the Dalai Lama and the people of Tibet.

67. Red-and-white supermarket logo IGA
IGA stands for Independent Grocers Alliance, a chain of supermarkets that extends right around the world. IGA’s headquarters is in Chicago.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Tom, Ma or Pa, in “The Grapes of Wrath” JOAD
5. Ballpark judges UMPS
9. Greek i’s IOTAS
14. Doing nothing IDLE
15. Put a stop to HALT
16. Russian currency RUBLE
17. Food Network’s “Throwdown!” host BOBBY FLAY (fl-A)
19. Actor’s platform STAGE
20. Remove pencil marks ERASE
21. Vinyl flooring piece TILE
23. Skin care brand OLAY
24. ’60s song about an insect who “hid / Inside a doggie from Madrid” SPANISH FLEA (fl-E)
27. Palsy-walsy CHUMMY
31. Mongrel CUR
32. Villainous Norse god in the 2012 film “The Avengers” LOKI
33. Musical pause REST
37. Guffaw LAUGH
41. 1996 R. Kelly hit I BELIEVE I CAN FLY (fl-I)
44. Baffling question POSER
45. Sesame Street giggler ELMO
46. Increase, as prices GO UP
47. Singer Sumac YMA
49. Deceives LIES TO
51. Difference between money coming in and money being spent NET CASH FLOW (fl-O)
57. Grand Ole __ OPRY
58. Beverage nut KOLA
59. Newton with laws ISAAC
64. Squirrel away HOARD
66. Contagious dog malady CANINE FLU (fl-U … well, “fl-oo”!)
68. Take place OCCUR
69. SOS responder USCG
70. Fast horse ARAB
71. Bridge predecessor WHIST
72. Stadium that hosted a 1965 Beatles concert SHEA
73. Muscle firmness TONE

Down
1. Be in sync (with) JIBE
2. Febreze target ODOR
3. “Fantastic Four” actress Jessica ALBA
4. Society newbies DEBS
5. Frequency between 300 and 3,000 MHz UHF
6. Island nation near Sicily MALTA
7. __ Jane PLAIN
8. Touchscreen-touching tools STYLI
9. Org. that’s the target of April glowers IRS
10. Not close enough OUT OF RANGE
11. Game for young batters T-BALL
12. Aquarium buildup ALGAE
13. “I’m outta here!” SEE YA!
18. Polite rural assent YES’M
22. PC bailout key ESC
25. Pile that aptly rhymes with fire PYRE
26. Hawaiian dance HULA
27. Film excerpt CLIP
28. Vagabond HOBO
29. 26-Down instruments UKES
30. Hannah Montana portrayer MILEY CYRUS
34. Eden outcast EVE
35. Poivre companion SEL
36. Duncan of the NBA’s Spurs TIM
38. Usually fuzzy tabloid pics UFOS
39. Market surfeit GLUT
40. Doc’s shot provider HYPO
42. Culinary maven Rombauer IRMA
43. Denver’s st. COLO
48. Inquire of ASK
50. Victor’s cry I WIN!
51. “Never in a million years!” NOHOW!
52. Pleistocene, e.g. EPOCH
53. “Baywatch” actress Bingham TRACI
54. Magician’s opening HOCUS
55. Word with drive or memory FLASH
56. Cavalry weapon LANCE
60. “Save me a __!” SEAT
61. Bushy do AFRO
62. Arkin of “Argo” ALAN
63. Sugar bowl unit CUBE
65. 2000 Richard Gere role DR T
67. Red-and-white supermarket logo IGA

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