LA Times Crossword Answers 7 Nov 13, Thursday

CROSSWORD SETTER: Andrea Carla Michaels & Gregory Cameron
THEME: Wine Substitution … each of today’s themed answer is a well-known phrase, but with the name wine grape substituted for a similar-sounding word:

17A. Wine enthusiast’s list of killer reds? SEVEN DEADLY ZINS (from “seven deadly sins”)
36A. Wine enthusiast’s “That’s how it goes”? QUE SYRAH, SYRAH (from “que sera, sera”)
57A. Wine enthusiast’s philosophy? LIFE IS A CABERNET (from “life is a cabaret”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 8m 27s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Hollywood special effects, briefly CGI
Computer-generated imagery (CGI)

10. 1970s-’80s sketch comedy show SCTV
“Second City Television” (SCTV) is a sketch show that was produced in Canada from 1976 to 1984. The TV show was a spinoff from the Second City comedy group from Toronto.

14. “Prince Valiant” prince ARN
“Prince Valiant” is a comic strip that first appeared in 1937 when it was created by Hal Foster. Edward, Duke of Windsor called the “Prince Valiant” comic strip the “greatest contribution to English Literature in the past one hundred years”. I’m not so sure …

15. Brian McKnight/Vanessa Williams duet with the line “It conquers all” LOVE IS
“Love Is” is a duet that was released in 1998 by Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight. The song was used (twice) on the soundtrack of the TV show “Beverly Hills, 90210” and then on the spinoff “Melrose Place”. After the television exposure, “Love Is” conquered the charts.

Brian McKnight is an R&B musician and singer who is noted for an extraordinarily strong falsetto voice. He is also a talented instrumentalist and plays the piano, guitar, percussion, trombone, tuba, flugelhorn and trumpet.

Vanessa Williams has built quite a career for herself after briefly holding the 1983 Miss America title. Williams is now a successful actress and singer. On the big screen she did a fine job playing the lead opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1996’s “Eraser”. On the small screen she had a major role in the hit comedy “Ugly Betty”. Williams is sometimes confused with fellow actress Vanessa A. Williams who is no relation.

16. Chain with stacks IHOP
The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) was founded back in 1958. IHOP was originally intended to be called IHOE, the International House of Eggs, but that name didn’t do too well in marketing tests …

17. Wine enthusiast’s list of killer reds? SEVEN DEADLY ZINS (from “seven deadly sins”)
Zinfandel is my favorite red wine varietal. It amazes me that the rich and heavy red Zinfandel comes from the same grape as does the sweet White Zinfandel.

The cardinal sins of Christian ethics are also known as the seven deadly sins. The seven deadly sins are:

– wrath
– greed
– sloth
– pride
– lust
– envy
– gluttony

20. “I __ Symphony”: Supremes hit HEAR A
The Supremes were the most successful vocal group in US history, based on number one hits. The group started out in 1959 as a four-member lineup called the Primettes. The name was changed to the Supremes in 1961. One member dropped out in 1962, leaving the Supremes as a trio. Lead singer Diana Ross began to garner much of the attention, which eventually led to a further name change, to Diana Ross & the Supremes.

21. Hoover underlings FBI MEN
J. Edgar Hoover was the controversial director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from the time of its founding in 1935 until his death in 1972. While being given the credit for establishing the FBI as a first-class crime-fighting organization, he was also criticized by many for exceeding his authority. In particular, he came into conflict with Presidents Truman and Kennedy, both of whom considered dismissing him. Neither took that step however, fearing the political fallout.

29. Kaput SHOT
“Kaput” comes to us from French via German. “Capot” means “not having won a single trick” in the French card game called Piquet.

31. Mineo of film SAL
Sal Mineo’s most famous role was John “Plate” Crawford, the kid who was in awe of the James Dean character in “Rebel Without a Cause”. Sadly, Mineo was murdered in 1976 when he was just 37 years old. He was attacked in the alley behind his Los Angeles apartment and stabbed through the heart. When an arrest was made it was discovered that the murderer had no idea that his victim was a celebrity, and that his plan was just to rob anyone who came along.

32. Barcelona bar bites TAPAS
“Tapa” is the Spanish word for “lid”, and there is no clear rationale for why this word came to be used for an appetizer. There are lots of explanations cited, all of which seem to involve the temporary covering of one’s glass of wine with a plate or item of food to either preserve the wine or give one extra space at the table.

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain, after the capital Madrid. Barcelona is the largest European city that sits on the Mediterranean coast. It is also the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia.

36. Wine enthusiast’s “That’s how it goes”? QUE SYRAH, SYRAH (from “que sera, sera”)
The Iranian city of Shiraz has long been associated with wine, but there is no proven link between the city and the wine/grape we know today as “Shiraz” (also called “Syrah”). Having said that, some clay jars were found just outside of the city of Shiraz that contained wine; wine that was 7,000 years old!

As Doris Day told us, “que sera sera” is Spanish for “whatever will be, will be”. Day performed the Oscar-winning song “Que Sera, Sera” in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 version of the movie “The Man Who Knew Too Much”.

43. It’s saved in bits DATA
In the world of computers, a “bit” is the basic unit of information. A bit has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of bits (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text.

56. Sierra __: Freetown’s country LEONE
The Republic of Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa, lying on the Atlantic Coast. The capital city of Freetown was originally set up as a colony to house the “Black Poor” of London, England. These people were mainly freed British slaves of Caribbean descent who were living a miserable life in the run-down parts of London. Perhaps to help the impoverished souls, perhaps to rid the streets of “a problem”, three ships were chartered in 1787 to transport a group of blacks, with some whites, to a piece of land purchased in Sierra Leone. Those who made the voyage were guaranteed British citizenship and protection. The descendants of these immigrants, and others who made the journey over the next 60 years, make up the ethnic group that’s today called the Sierra Leone Creole.

57. Wine enthusiast’s philosophy? LIFE IS A CABERNET (from “life is a cabaret”)
The Cabernet Sauvignon grape has been around since the 17th century. It is the result of a chance crossing in southwestern France of the Cabernet franc and Sauvignon blanc grapes.

61. Champagne choice BRUT
Sparkling wines can be classified according to sweetness. These classifications are, from driest to sweetest:

– Brut Nature
– Extra Brut
– Brut
– Extra Dry
– Dry
– Semi-Dry
– Sweet

62. First novel in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle ERAGON
Christopher Paolini began writing his best-selling fantasy story “Eragon” at the age of 15. Christopher’s parents, when they read the final version two years later, they decided to self-publish it, and supported Christopher as he toured the US promoting the novel. It was eventually republished by Alfred A. Knopf in 2003, and became the second-best-selling children’s paperback of 2005. The book was adapted for the big screen in 2006. I’d call that a success story …

Down
2. Novelist Graham GREENE
Graham Greene was a writer and playwright from England. Greene wrote some of my favorite novels, including “Brighton Rock”, “The End of the Affair”, “The Confidential Agent”, “The Third Man”, “The Quiet American” and “Our Man in Havana”. Greene’s books often feature espionage in exotic locales. Greene himself worked for MI6, the UK’s foreign intelligence agency. In fact, Greene’s MI6 supervisor was Kim Philby, the famed Soviet spy who penetrated high into British intelligence.

4. Arm bone-related ULNAR
The radius and ulna are bones in the forearm. If you hold the palm of your hand up in front of you, the radius is the bone on the “thumb-side” of the arm, and the ulna is the bone on the “pinkie-side”.

9. Singer K.T. OSLIN
Singer K. T. Oslin is best known for her string of country hits in the eighties.

11. Waters off Taiwan CHINA SEA
There isn’t really a “China Sea” per se, but the China “Seas” are:

– the Yellow Sea
– the East China Sea
– the South China Sea

The island of Taiwan is separated from the coast of mainland China by the Taiwan Strait. The East China Sea lies to the north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Luzon Strait to the south and the South China Sea to the southwest.

13. Cheney and Biden: Abbr. VPS
In 2000, Dick Cheney was called upon by then-Governor George W. Bush to head up the search for a running mate for Bush in the presidential election. After a few months search, Bush turned things on their head by asking Cheney to join him on the ticket.

Vice President Joe Biden was a US Senator representing the state of Delaware from 1973 until he joined the Obama administration. While he was a senator, Vice President Biden commuted to Washington from Wilmington, Delaware almost every working day. He was such an active customer and supporter of Amtrak that the Wilmington Station was renamed as the Joseph R. Biden Railroad Station in 2011. Biden has made over 7,000 trips from that station, and the Amtrak crews were known to even hold the last train for a few minutes so that he could catch it. Biden earned himself the nickname “Amtrak Joe”.

19. Sumac of Peru YMA
Yma Sumac was a Peruvian soprano. Sumac had a notable vocal range of five octaves.

24. __-Pei SHAR
The Shar Pei breed of dog is that one with the wrinkly face and really dark tongue. The breed originated in China, with “Shar Pei” being the British spelling of the Cantonese name.

26. Golfer Johnson ZACH
Zach Johnson is a professional golfer from Iowa. Johnson won the Masters Tournament in 2007.

27. Antlered animal ELK
The elk (also known as the wapiti) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were familiar with the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the “huge” wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and incorrectly gave it the European name for a moose, namely “elk”. The more correct name for the beast is “wapiti”, which means “white rump” in Shawnee. It’s all very confusing …

30. Neighbor of Kobe and Kyoto OSAKA
The Japanese city of Osaka used to be called Naniwa, with the name changing to Osaka some time before 1500. “Osaka” can be translated either as “large hill” or “large slope”.

Kobe is a city on the island of Honshu in Japan, and yes, basketball star Kobe Bryant is named after the Japanese city. The city of Kobe is perhaps most famous for its beef.

The city of Kyoto was once the capital of Japan, and in fact the name “Kyoto” means “capital city” in Japanese.

33. Mule parent ASS
A hinny is the offspring of a male horse (the “h-” from h-orse) and a female donkey (the “-nny” from je-nny). A mule is more common, and is the offspring of a female horse and male donkey.

34. “Sammy the Seal” author Hoff SYD
Syd Hoff wrote the children’s readers “Danny and the Dinosaur” and “Sammy the Seal”. Hoff also drew two syndicated comic strips, “Tuffy” (1939-1949) and “Laugh It Off” (1958-1978).

36. Bon mot QUIP
“Bon mot” translates from French as “good word”. We use “bon mot” (and sometimes just “mot”) to mean a quip, a witticism.

38. Google goals HITS
The search engine “Google” was originally called “BackRub” would you believe? The name was eventually changed to Google, an intentional misspelling of the word “googol”. A googol is a pretty big number, 10 to the power of 100. That would be the digit 1 followed by 100 zeros.

39. Minn. neighbor S 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.

40. Scale notes FAS
The solfa syllables are: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la & ti.

45. Like many a John Cage composition ATONAL
John Cage was a classical composer from Los Angeles. One of Cage’s most famous works is his 1952 composition “4’33”. The musicians “playing” this piece just sit there for 4 minutes and 33 seconds, with the audience just taking in the ambient sounds present. Not my cup of tea …

46. Largest of New York’s Finger Lakes SENECA
When I first moved to the US I came to Upstate New York and was lucky enough to live near the beautiful Finger Lakes. The largest of the eleven lakes is Seneca Lake, one of the deepest bodies of water in the United States. My wife and I visited the Finger Lakes region in 2010 and stopped at one of the best wineries in the area and frankly were blown away by the quality of the wines available. Coming from California it’s very refreshing to taste great wines that are made without the benefit of artificial irrigation.

49. Butler of fiction RHETT
In Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind”, when Rhett Butler finally walks out on Scarlett O’Hara he utters the words “My dear, I don’t give a damn”. Most of us are more familiar with the slightly different words spoken by Clark Gable in the film adaption of the story: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

50. Ornamental pond fish KOI
Koi are also called Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

53. Justice Kagan ELENA
Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States who replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the fourth female US Supreme Court justice (there have been 108 men!). I hear she is a fan of Jane Austen, and used to reread “Pride and Prejudice” once a year. Not a bad thing to do, I’d say …

57. Lots of ozs. LBS
The unit of mass that we know today as a “pound” is descended from the old Roman unit of weight known as a “libra”. That “libra” connection is why we abbreviate pound to “lb”. The name “pound” though comes from the Latin “pondo” meaning “weight”.

Our term “ounce” comes from the Latin “uncia”, which was 1/12 of a “libra”, the Roman “pound”.

58. Keogh plan kin IRA
Keogh plans are retirement plans used by self-employed individuals and small businesses. The plans are named for Democratic member of the US House Eugene James Keogh who sponsored the bill that introduced such plans.

59. Ottoman dignitary AGA
“Aga” (also “agha”) is a title that was used by both civil and military officials in the Ottoman Empire.

60. Sci-fi sidekick, often BOT
I guess that “bot” is an alternative term for “robot”.

“R.U.R.” is a play written in Czech by Karel Capek, first produced in 1921. “R.U.R.” is a science fiction work and is remembered in part for introducing the world to the word “robot”. The words “automaton” and “android” were already in use, but Capek gave us “robot” from the original Czech “robota” meaning “forced labor”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Hollywood special effects, briefly CGI
4. Did, but doesn’t now USED TO
10. 1970s-’80s sketch comedy show SCTV
14. “Prince Valiant” prince ARN
15. Brian McKnight/Vanessa Williams duet with the line “It conquers all” LOVE IS
16. Chain with stacks IHOP
17. Wine enthusiast’s list of killer reds? SEVEN DEADLY ZINS (from “seven deadly sins”)
20. “I __ Symphony”: Supremes hit HEAR A
21. Hoover underlings FBI MEN
22. Stands the test of time ENDURES
25. Out to lunch, so to speak IN A DAZE
28. Shed tears WEEP
29. Kaput SHOT
31. Mineo of film SAL
32. Barcelona bar bites TAPAS
34. Dust particle SPECK
36. Wine enthusiast’s “That’s how it goes”? QUE SYRAH, SYRAH (from “que sera, sera”)
40. Bankrolls FUNDS
41. Man-to-boy address KIDDO
42. Feel ill AIL
43. It’s saved in bits DATA
44. Stinging insect WASP
48. Effervesce, as some wine SPARKLE
52. Helter-__ SKELTER
54. “Uh-oh” WHOOPS
56. Sierra __: Freetown’s country LEONE
57. Wine enthusiast’s philosophy? LIFE IS A CABERNET (from “life is a cabaret”)
61. Champagne choice BRUT
62. First novel in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle ERAGON
63. Take steps ACT
64. Eggs sprinkling SALT
65. Levels of society STRATA
66. __ down the law LAY

Down
1. Nut used in Asian cooking CASHEW
2. Novelist Graham GREENE
3. Overrun INVADE
4. Arm bone-related ULNAR
5. Lawn maker SOD
6. Celebration time EVE
7. Fall on __ ears DEAF
8. Choice piece TIDBIT
9. Singer K.T. OSLIN
10. Judged, with “up” SIZED
11. Waters off Taiwan CHINA SEA
12. Cargo unit TON
13. Cheney and Biden: Abbr. VPS
18. Lost one’s temper ERUPTED
19. Sumac of Peru YMA
23. Glimpse ESPY
24. __-Pei SHAR
26. Golfer Johnson ZACH
27. Antlered animal ELK
30. Neighbor of Kobe and Kyoto OSAKA
33. Mule parent ASS
34. “Sammy the Seal” author Hoff SYD
35. Cat burglar PROWLER
36. Bon mot QUIP
37. Illicit UNLAWFUL
38. Google goals HITS
39. Minn. neighbor S DAK
40. Scale notes FAS
43. Hit the road DEPART
45. Like many a John Cage composition ATONAL
46. Largest of New York’s Finger Lakes SENECA
47. Comely PRETTY
49. Butler of fiction RHETT
50. Ornamental pond fish KOI
51. Draws the short straw, say LOSES
53. Justice Kagan ELENA
55. Lasting mark SCAR
57. Lots of ozs. LBS
58. Keogh plan kin IRA
59. Ottoman dignitary AGA
60. Sci-fi sidekick, often BOT

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