LA Times Crossword Answers 20 Aug 16, Saturday




LA Times Crossword Solution 20 Aug 16







Constructed by: Julian Lim

Edited by: Rich Norris

Quicklink to a complete list of today’s clues and answers

Quicklink to comments

Theme: None

Bill’s time: 19m 45s

Bill’s errors: 0




Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across

1…”The Winds of War” actress..ALI MACGRAW

Ali MacGraw’s most famous role was the female lead in the 1970 film “Love Story”. MacGraw became romantically involved with Steve McQueen as they filmed “The Getaway” in 1972. The pair eventually wed after they managed to unwind their first marriages. They divorced in 1978.

“The Winds of War” is a 1983 mini-series made from a book of the same name by Herman Wouk. Both book and TV movie depict events from March 1939 until the US joined WWII in December 1941. There is a large cast, with the bill topped by Robert Mitchum and Ali MacGraw.

11…Bon __..MOT

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

14…”Love in the First Degree” all-female group..BANANARAMA

Bananarama is a female singing group that formed in London in 1979. Bananarama’s biggest hit was the 1986 hit “Venus” that topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. “Venus” was originally a number-one hit for the Dutch band Shocking Blue, back in 1969/1970.

18…Emblem..TOTEM

Totem is the name given to any entity that watches over a group of people. As such, totems are usually the subjects of worship. Totem poles are really misnamed, as they are not intended to represent figures to be worshiped, but rather are heraldic in nature often celebrating the legends or notable events in the history of a tribe.

19…New Mexican?..NENE

“Nene” is the Spanish word for a male baby or young child.

20…Ho Chi __ City..MINH

Hanoi was the capital of North Vietnam, and Saigon the capital of South Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, Hanoi was made capital of the reunified state. Saigon, the larger metropolis, was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi is located in the delta of the Red River, and is just over 50 miles from the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea.

23…”The Legend of Zelda” currency..RUPEES

“The Legend of Zelda” is a video game. Apparently it’s very successful.

25…Sidecar ingredient..TRIPLE SEC

Triple sec is liqueur made from the dried peels of bitter and sweet oranges. I tend to use triple sec in cocktails calling for Grand Marnier or Cointreau, as it is a cheaper alternative and tastes very similar …

The Sidecar is actually my favorite cocktail. It was invented around the end of WWI possibly in the Ritz Hotel in Paris. It’s a simple drink to make, and contains brandy, cointreau or triple sec, and lemon or lime juice. It’s really the brandy version of a margarita (or vice versa).

32…Happy __: old snack brand mascot..HO HO

Ho Hos snack cakes were first produced in San Francisco in 1967. The “Happy Ho Ho” mascot was created for the brand in the 1970s, and was a cartoon character in a Robin Hood outfit. Ho Hos weren’t the best thing to come out of the sixties I’d say …

35…Slovenia neighbor, to the IOC..CRO

The Republic of Croatia is a Balkan country. The Croats declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Croatia became a member of NATO in 2009, and a member of the European Union in 2013.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894, and has its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

36…Singer Lambert with the album “Trespassing”..ADAM

Singer Adam Lambert is one of the “successes” to come out of the “American Idol” machine.

37…Angiography concern..AORTA

An angiogram is an x-ray (usually) image taken of the circulatory system, often enhanced by the introduction of a radio-opaque “dye” into the bloodstream.

38…Crisply and detached, to an orch…STAC

Staccato is a musical direction signifying that notes should be played in a disconnected form. The opposite of staccato would be legato, long and continuous notes played very smoothly.

39…Talks acronym..TED

The acronym TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. TED is a set of conferences held around the world by a non-profit group called the Sapling Foundation. The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The Sapling Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as “TED Talks”.

42…Mine finder..SONAR

The British developed the first underwater detection system that used sound waves. Research was driven by defence demands during WWI, leading to production of working units in 1922. This new sound detection system was described as using “supersonics”, but for the purpose of secrecy the term was dropped in favor of an acronym. The work was done under the auspices of the Royal Navy’s Anti-Submarine Division, so ASD was combined with the IC from “superson-ic-s” to create the name ASDIC. The navy even went as far as renaming the quartz material at the heart of the technology “ASDivite”. By the time WWII came along, the Americans were producing their own systems and coined the term SONAR, playing off the related application, RADAR. And so the name ASDIC was deep-sixed …

44…Dairy Queen offerings..BLIZZARDS

Soft serve ice cream was developed by John McCullough in 1938. McCullough was able to get his new dessert carried by a local ice cream store in Illinois. He and the store owner became so swamped with sales that they opened a store specifically built around the product in Joliet, Illinois, hence creating the first Dairy Queen outlet. There are now over 5,700 Dairy Queen franchises in 19 countries. We’ve even got one in Ireland …

46…Publisher Ochs..ADOLPH

Adolph Ochs was a former owner of “The New York Times”. Ochs had purchased a controlling interest in “The Chattanooga Times” when he was only 19 years of age, and took control of “The New York Times” in 1896 when he was 38 years old. It was Ochs who moved the paper’s headquarters to a new building on Longacre Square in Manhattan, which the city later renamed to the famous “Times Square” after the newspaper. The Ochs-Sulzberger family has owned the paper ever since.

49…Quo warranto, e.g…WRIT

A writ of “quo warranto” was issued under English law to compel a person to show by what authority he or she had a particular liberty or office. In US law today, a quo warranto is a trial or hearing to determine the same thing.

50…Short-lived ’80s sports org…USFL

The United States Football League (USFL) was started in 1983 as a league playing during the spring and summer. The league’s backer’s thought there would be a lot of interest in watching and attending games during the NFL’s offseason. The USFL folded after three years, so apparently the backers were wrong …

59…Grammy-winning Santana song..MARIA MARIA

Santana is a Latin rock band from by guitarist Carlos Santana in San Francisco in 1967. Santana’s big break came with a well-received performance at Woodstock in 1969, when the band was completely unknown.

Down

1…Help with a job..ABET

The word “abet” comes into English from the Old French “abeter” meaning “to bait” or “to harass with dogs” (it literally means “to make bite”). This sense of encouraging something bad to happen morphed into our modern usage of “abet” meaning to aid or encourage someone in a crime.

2…”Mission: Impossible” theme composer Schifrin..LALO

Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine pianist and composer best-known for writing film and television scores. Famously, Schifrin wrote the theme for “Mission: Impossible”, but also for “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, “Mannix” and “Starsky and Hutch”.

4…Jerry Herman musical..MAME

The musical “Mame” opened on Broadway in 1966, with Angela Lansbury in the title role. The musical is based on the 1955 novel “Auntie Mame” written by Patrick Dennis.

Jerry Herman is a composer and lyricist best known for his work on Broadway musicals. Herman’s biggest hits as a composer are “Hello, Dolly!”, “Mame” and “La Cage aux Folles”.

7…Where Ulysses rests..GRANT’S TOMB

The bodies of President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia Dent Grant are entombed in sarcophagi in the structure known as “Grant’s Tomb” in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City. There’s an old chestnut of a riddle that goes “Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?” The answer is “No one”, as the former president and first lady are entombed above ground.

9…Hymn ender..AMEN

The word “amen” is translated as “so be it”. “Amen” is said to be of Hebrew origin, but it is likely to be also influenced by Aramaic and Arabic.

11…Penn, for one..MOVIE ACTOR

Actor Sean Penn is a two-time Oscar winner, for his roles in “Mystic River” released in 2003 and “Milk” released in 2008. Penn’s celebrity on screen is only matched with his fame off the screen. Apart from his “big name” marriages to singer Madonna and actress Robin Wright, Penn is also well known for political and social activism. He perhaps inherited some of his political views from his father, actor and director Leo Penn. As an actor, Leo refused to “name names” in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee and so was blacklisted in Hollywood and had to move into directing to put bread on the table. In later years as a director he gave his son Sean his first acting role, in a 1974 episode of “Little House on the Prairie”.

13…AAPL and GOOG..TECH STOCKS

The NASDAQ ticker symbol for Apple is AAPL, and for Google is GOOG. Well, GOOG used to be Google’s ticker symbol. GOOG is now assigned to Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company that was formed in 2015.

24…Letters before some state names..USS

The abbreviation “USS” stands for “United States Ship”. The practice of naming US Navy vessels in a standard format didn’t start until 1907 when President Theodore Roosevelt issued an executive order that addressed the issue.

25…Shout after the last shot..THAT’S A WRAP!

When shooting of a film is concluded the movie is said to “wrap”, and everyone heads to the wrap party. There is one story that “wrap” is actually an acronym for “wind, reel and print”, a reference to the transition of the filming process into post-production. But, this explanation is disputed.

26…Part of Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle..RODEO DRIVE

There’s a three-block stretch of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California that is known for expensive shopping, mainly in designer clothes stores. The surrounding business district is known as the Beverly Hills “Golden Triangle”, which extends from Wilshire to Santa Monica Boulevards. The triangle is a mecca for shoppers and tourists.

28…Popular toy, for short..POM

The Pomeranian is a breed of small dog, named for the Pomerania region of Europe (part of eastern Germany and northern Poland). The breed was much loved by the royalty of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century, Queen Victoria owned a particularly small Pomeranian. Due to the notoriety of the monarch’s pet, the Pomeranian was bred for small size, so that during the Queen’s admittedly long reign, the size of the average “pom” was reduced by 50% …

29…Documentarian Morris..ERROL

Errol Morris is a film director, best known for his excellent 2003 documentary “The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara”. Morris also directed “The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld” in 2013.

34…__ ball..MATZO

Matzo is a unleavened bread, that is very brittle. The bread is crushed, creating Matzo meal that is then formed into balls using eggs and oil as a binder. The balls are usually served in a chicken stock.

40…”Leaves and Navels” artist..ARP

Jean Arp was a French artist renowned for his work with torn and pasted paper, although that wasn’t the only medium he used. Arp was the son of a French mother and German father and spoke both languages fluently. When he was speaking German he gave his name as Hans Arp, but when speaking French he called himself Jean Arp. Both “Hans” and “Jean” translate into English as “John”. In WWI Arp moved to Switzerland to avoid being called up to fight, taking advantage of Swiss neutrality. Eventually he was told to report to the German Consulate and fill out paperwork for the draft. In order to get out of fighting, Arp messed up the paperwork by writing the date in every blank space on the forms. Then he took off all of his clothes and walked with his papers over to the officials in charge. Arp was sent home …

45…”The Lion King” composer Hans..ZIMMER

Hans Zimmer is a film composer from Frankfurt in Germany. The long list of films that Zimmer has scored includes “Rain Man” (1998), “The Lion King” (1994), “Gladiator” (2000), “The Dark Knight” (2008), “Inception” (2010) and “12 Years a Slave” (2013).

52…”Animal House” group..FRAT

The very funny 1978 movie “Animal House” has the prefix “National Lampoon’s …” because the storyline came out of tales that had already appeared in “National Lampoon” magazine. “Animal House” was to become the first in a long line of successful “National Lampoon” films. The main pledges in the movie are Tom Hulce (Pinto), who later played a magnificent “Amadeus”, and Stephen Furst (Flounder), later played a regular role on television’s “Babylon 5”.

55…Singer of complex songs..WREN

A wren is a small songbird belonging to the family troglodytidae and the genus troglodytes.

56…Michael’s brother in “Prison Break”..LINC

“Prison Break” is TV drama that originally aired from 2005 until 2009. The storyline revolves around Lincoln Burrows, a convicted felon who is wrongfully charged with murder, and Michael Scofield, Lincoln’s brother who is devoted to getting his brother out of jail.

57…Make full..SATE

“Sate” is a variant of the older word “satiate”. Both terms can mean either to satisfy an appetite fully, or to eat to excess.

60…City on the Firth of Clyde..AYR

Ayr is a port town on the Firth of Clyde in southwest Scotland. The celebrated poet Robert Burns was born just three miles from Ayr.

Return to top of page

Complete List of Clues and Answers

Across

1…”The Winds of War” actress..ALI MACGRAW

11…Bon __..MOT

14…”Love in the First Degree” all-female group..BANANARAMA

15…Emotion betrayer..TONE

16…Knocked out..ELIMINATED

17…Emergency op..EVAC

18…Emblem..TOTEM

19…New Mexican?..NENE

20…Ho Chi __ City..MINH

21…Busts, e.g…ART

23…”The Legend of Zelda” currency..RUPEES

25…Sidecar ingredient..TRIPLE SEC

31…Jump __..START

32…Happy __: old snack brand mascot..HO HO

33…Pulls some strings?..STRUMS

35…Slovenia neighbor, to the IOC..CRO

36…Singer Lambert with the album “Trespassing”..ADAM

37…Angiography concern..AORTA

38…Crisply and detached, to an orch…STAC

39…Talks acronym..TED

40…Tops..AT MOST

41…Driver’s protest..HONK

42…Mine finder..SONAR

44…Dairy Queen offerings..BLIZZARDS

46…Publisher Ochs..ADOLPH

48…”__ won’t!”..NO I

49…Quo warranto, e.g…WRIT

50…Short-lived ’80s sports org…USFL

53…Whimpers..MEWLS

58…Lift..RIDE

59…Grammy-winning Santana song..MARIA MARIA

61…Maintain..AVER

62…Regardless..IN ANY EVENT

63…Podded plant..PEA

64…Restraining order, say..DETERRENCE

Down

1…Help with a job..ABET

2…”Mission: Impossible” theme composer Schifrin..LALO

3…Still vying..IN IT

4…Jerry Herman musical..MAME

5…Kind of magnetism..ANIMAL

6…Preserve, in a way..CAN

7…Where Ulysses rests..GRANT’S TOMB

8…Word after going or before hike..RATE

9…Hymn ender..AMEN

10…Bit of fishing attire..WADER

11…Penn, for one..MOVIE ACTOR

12…At the store, perhaps..ON AN ERRAND

13…AAPL and GOOG..TECH STOCKS

15…Entice..TEMPT

22…Came together again..RESAT

24…Letters before some state names..USS

25…Shout after the last shot..THAT’S A WRAP!

26…Part of Beverly Hills’ Golden Triangle..RODEO DRIVE

27…”Honestly?!”..I HAD NO IDEA!

28…Popular toy, for short..POM

29…Documentarian Morris..ERROL

30…Emulates a bad waiter?..CUTS IN LINE

34…__ ball..MATZO

38…Oldies syllable..SHA-

40…”Leaves and Navels” artist..ARP

43…Modify..ALTER

45…”The Lion King” composer Hans..ZIMMER

47…Sticky..HUMID

51…Sound..SANE

52…”Animal House” group..FRAT

54…Gable neighbor..EAVE

55…Singer of complex songs..WREN

56…Michael’s brother in “Prison Break”..LINC

57…Make full..SATE

60…City on the Firth of Clyde..AYR




Return to top of page

11 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 20 Aug 16, Saturday”

  1. Good morning, all! I hope y’all found this grid easier than I did. I did manage to finish it, though, and with a time not far behind Bill’s!

    @Bill I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this; the “comments” link at the top of the page doesn’t seem to be working. It behaves like a link when you touch it, but doesn’t take you anywhere! I’m on a mini iPad running the current iOS. I wonder if the problem’s on my end?

    Have great weekend everyone!

    1. @Carrie
      Always good to be appreciated. Not enough of that out there for most. 🙂

      @David
      I did yesterday’s meta and ran into a similar thing as you – all the clues are supposed to point to a “you know it when you got it” answer, but I always have a hard time interpreting them. Never hurts to try an answer though, and I did. “Complete the theme” answers are always hard simply because it’s hard to tell what the theme is *exactly* – whether there’s a specific pattern to the words in the theme entries or not in this case.

      Other than that, good week so far on the LAT grids (completed them all anyway). Need to see how today and tomorrow goes for a full verdict. But having a good week, relatively. 🙂

    2. @Joel, @Bill
      “I don’t know if anyone else has experienced this”

      Actually, this happens only on the main marquee page – there is no “referring page” so the position tag doesn’t work. When you go to individual pages, the tag will then work. Basically the difference between this and this. There may be a setting in the theme to show the footers as headers, but the main way to correct it would be to assure the link to the full page is present.

  2. Finally finished this one. No idea how long it took me as I kept being interrupted. I need to keep phone and Skype off while doing these things. NW was the last to fall as I couldn’t remember how to spell ALI MACGRAW.

    I might disagree with Bill about TRIPLE SEC. Athough it’s fine in most cases, a margarita is noticeably improved when they use Cointreau instead IMHO. To me it neutralizes the acidity of the lime better. I “experitmented” with plenty of them recently. On my trip to Puerto Vallarta, I actually found a bar that makes margaritas using freshly squeezed lime and orange juice. They squeeze it right into the glass (note I always order it on the rocks – never frozen). It was spectacular.

    Dave – Interesting article on staving off dementia yesterday. I’d like to read more on it, however. They mention the completion of 11 such exercises, but they don’t mention a frequency. Daily? Monthly? Weekly? Or just 11 and you’re done? Interesting that focusing on an object and then using your peripheral visionto ID other objects/movements is also how you use your mind and eyes in martial arts. Maybe that’s one way something like Tai Chi helps. It also seemed to me at first glance that doing crosswords with pen and paper would be more useful in this aspect.

    All that said, I remember my grandmother at age 85 was suffering from some degree of dementia, but she could still crank out crosswords as quickly as ever up to the day she died. Go figure.

    Best –

  3. 36:35, no errors, iPad. This one seemed to play to all my weaknesses, but I finally got through it.

    @Jeff … As I understand it, the study that was done involved 3000 older people, who were given five weeks of training. Each was assigned at random to one of four different tracks, focusing on : 1) memory skills; 2) reasoning skills; 3) “speed of processing” aka “useful field of view”; and 4) none of the above. They were then followed for ten years, and group 3 showed a 33% reduction in the amount of dementia or cognitive impairment compared to the others. Pretty dramatic. You have to wonder: if five weeks of training did them that much good, how much better might the results have been if they had continued the training for the whole ten years. As for your grandmother: I’ve often wondered if something similar might happen to me. Perhaps all those decades of doing crosswords has taken over a larger and larger portion of my brain, at the expense of everything else … 🙂

    1. Dave – another illustration of this – albeit a sad one – is a high school friend of mine has a son who was a very good student and an elite level hockey player. In his first year of college, he came down with some sort of psychosis where he lacks all motivation and probably won’t ever be able to hold down a job. He needs special care etc….

      But my friend at age 53 still plays in a men’s ice hockey league (as do I still as a further illustration of my own dementia probably..), and plays with his son. When his son gets on the ice, he’s still the best player out there. Something about the repetition of all those years, I assume, allows him to still play at a top level despite the impairment.

  4. Looked completely unsolvable to me.
    The bottom right block was my undoing.
    MARIA MARIA? Have to google it.
    WREN fooled me.
    Got farther than I expected.
    The “comments” shortcut doesn’t work for me anymore either.
    I just scroll down, no big deal.

  5. This appeared difficult when I first began it but turned out to be easier than I had any right to expect. So either all my synapses and neurons are firing in unison this morning or this was an easier Saturday for some reason. My betting is squarely on the latter of the above choices.

    Have a great Saturday all. I’m opening the store now and we will see how busy, or not at all busy, my day will be.

  6. Not a bad puzzle for a Saturday — but upward of two dozen PPPs is a bit much. No egregiously good or bad clues. Overall, challenging but satisfying.

  7. Got all of the top and left side and most of the middle but a lot of the right side and most of the bottom right eluded me. I listened to “Maria Maria”, and boy do his older albums have way better songs on them. I will never forget Lalo Schifrin again either, after doing a short study. Still the theme for “Mannix” and “Starchy and Putz” sucked compared to “Mission:Impossible” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E” themes, which are great.

    @Carrie Hey did you see the statue that popped up in your neighborhood on Thursday before they took it down?

  8. FINISHED!!! This was tough but I made it. The long answers seemed to help. That’s 7 Saturdays and counting! (Not 7 in a row, of course…or I’d be intolerantly smug.)
    DIRK!! I meant to Google the statues yesterday to see where the LA one was and I forgot! Turns out it is/was literally six blocks away! Glad you reminded me!!!! Just looked it up and it’s apparently still there, on the steps of the gift shop on that corner. It seems that other cities have taken theirs down. Must go see it Sunday — realizing, of course, that I can’t un-see it afterwards…?
    Jeff, glad you’re conducting those important Margarita tests rather than I — I’m such a lightweight…
    Sweet dreams~~™?

Comments are closed.