LA Times Crossword Answers 2 Feb 2018, Friday

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Constructed by: Stu Ockman
Edited by: Rich Norris

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Today’s Theme: Drink Up!

Themed clues are recipes for classic alcoholic DRINKS. Themed answers are in the down-direction, but are written UP, in the reverse direction:

  • 59A. Bar exhortation … and a hint to how to answer five puzzle clues : DRINK UP!
  • 4D. Tequila, triple sec and lime juice : ATIRAGRAM (“Margarita” drink up)
  • 10D. Champagne and orange juice : ASOMIM (“mimosa” drink up)
  • 21D. Bourbon, water and garnish : PELUJ TNIM (“mint julep” drink up)
  • 36D. Whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters : NATTAHNAM (“Manhattan” drink up)
  • 44D. White rum, sugar, lime juice, soda water and garnish : OTIJOM (“mojito” drink up)

Bill’s time: 9m 58s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. __ Lake, village near Lake Placid : SARANAC

The village of Saranac Lake in Upstate New York is named for the nearby Upper, Middle and Lower Saranac Lakes, even though the village boundaries touch none of the aforementioned lakes. There is also a completely separate village named Saranac, which lies just over 30 miles downstream on the Saranac River.

8. Skedaddles : BEATS IT

“Skedaddle ” is a slang term meaning “run away” that dates back to the Civil War.

19. A or O : ALER

The Oakland Athletics (usually “the A’s”) baseball franchise was founded back in 1901 as the Philadelphia Athletics. The team became the Kansas City Athletics in 1955 and moved to Oakland in 1968.

The Baltimore Orioles (the “O’s”) are one of the eight charter teams of MLB’s American League, so the franchise dates back to 1901. Prior to 1901, the team has roots in the Minor League Milwaukee Brewers, and indeed entered the American League as the Brewers. In 1902 the Brewers moved to St. Louis and became the Browns. The team didn’t fare well in St. Louis, so when it finally relocated to Baltimore in the early fifties the team changed its name completely, to the Baltimore Orioles. The owners so badly wanted a fresh start that they traded 17 old Browns players with the New York Yankees. The trade didn’t help the team’s performance on the field in those early days, but it did help distance the new team from its past.

22. Clipper trio : MASTS

A clipper was a three-masted sailing ship commonly crossing the seas in the 19th century. Clippers were built for speed, so were narrow and had less room for carrying freight than many vessels used in trade. They were developed largely due to the demand for speedy delivery of fresh tea from China to Europe. The name comes from the term “to clip” meaning to move swiftly (as in “at a clip”). Perhaps the most famous clipper ship is the Cutty Sark built in 1869, the last clipper to be built as a merchant vessel. The Cutty Sark owes her fame to the fact that she is on display as a museum ship in a dry dock in Greenwich in London.

23. “Ninja Scroll” genre : ANIME

“Ninja Scroll” is a 1993 Japanese anime film. An English-dubbed version was released the same year. The latter is a widely regarded as being at least partially responsible for popularizing the adult anime genre in the West.

25. Domain introduced in 2001 : BIZ

A domain name is basically the address of a website on the Internet. For example, the addresses of my crossword blogs, the domain names, are LAXCrossword.com and NYTCrossword.com.

26. Rod Stewart’s “__ May” : MAGGIE

“Maggie May” is a wonderful 1971 song recorded and co-written by Rod Stewart. Stewart tells us that the story told in “Maggie May” is basically true, and was inspired by the first woman with whom Stewart had a relationship, at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival in 1961.

29. Shuttle site : LOOM

When weaving with a loom, a shuttle is a tool that carries the thread across the weft yarn, back and forth so that the fabric “grows”.

34. Outlying community : EXURB

An extension to the term “suburb”, an exurb is an area beyond the suburbs at the very outskirts of a city. Often the term “exurb” is used to denote an area inhabited by more wealthy people.

35. Tesla, e.g. : AUTO

Tesla Motors is a manufacturer of electric vehicles based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla is noted for producing the first electric sports car, called the Tesla Roadster. The company followed the sports car with a luxury sedan, the Model S. The Model S was the world’s best selling plug-in electric vehicle of 2015.

37. “Zorba the Greek” Oscar winner Kedrova : LILA

Lila Kedrova was a Russian-born French actress best-known for playing Mme. Hortense in the 1964 film “Zorba the Greek”. Kedrova won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for that performance.

“Zorba the Greek” the film, and “Zorba” the musical, are adaptations of the 1952 novel “Zorba the Greek” by Nikos Kazantzakis. The 1964 film version stars Anthony Quinn in the title role, and Alan Bates. The movie is set and was filmed on location on the island of Crete, the home of author Kazantzakis.

38. Bottom of a food chain? : MCJOB

“McJob” is a slang term for a low-paying position that offers little chance for advancement. The term of course comes from front-line jobs at a McDonald’s fast-food restaurant.

39. Abruzzi bell town : ATRI

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote “The Sicilian’s Tale; The Bell of Atri”, a narrative poem set in the small town of Atri in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

40. Fertile soil : LOAM

Loam is soil made up of sand, silt and clay in the ratio of about 40-40-20. Relative to other soil types, loam is is usually rich in nutrients and moisture, drains well and is easy to till.

41. Picasso output : ARTE

The artist Pablo Picasso’s full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, a name he was given right from birth. Got that?

42. Mar. honoree : ST PAT

There is a fair amount known about Saint Patrick, some of which comes from two letters written in his own hand. St. Patrick lived in the fifth century, but was not born in Ireland. He was first brought to Ireland at about 16 years of age from his native Britain, by Irish raiders who made him a slave for six years. Patrick managed to escape and returned to his homeland where he studied and entered the Church. He went back to Ireland as a bishop and a missionary and there lived out the rest of his life. There seems to be good evidence that he died on March 17th (now celebrated annually as Saint Patrick’s Day), although the year is less clear. The stories about shamrock and snakes, I am afraid they are the stuff of legend.

43. “r u kidding?!” : OMG!

OMG is text-speak for “Oh My Gosh!” “Oh My Goodness!” or any other G-words you might think of …

45. Like an earworm : CATCHY

“Earworm” is a colloquial term used for a catchy tune that is also somewhat irritating, one that you can’t get out of your head.

46. Peugeot’s 208 or 308, e.g. : GTI

Peugeot is part of PSA Peugeot Citroen, the second largest car manufacturer in Europe. Peugeot was founded in 1810, and back then manufactured coffee and pepper grinders. The company expanded into other metallic goods like umbrella frames, saw blades and famously, into bicycles (still made to this day). The bicycles were a springboard into cars, an expansion fueled by meetings with Gottlieb Daimler who provided engines for the first years of production.

47. Tony winner Menzel of “Wicked” : IDINA

Actress and singer Idina Menzel came to public attention when she was a member of the original Broadway cast of “Rent”. She is known on the small screen for playing Shelby Corcoran on the musical TV show “Glee”. On the big screen, her most noted performance was as the voice actor behind Queen Elsa in the Disney hit “Frozen”. It is Menzel who sings the Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” in “Frozen”.

“Wicked” (more completely, “Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz”) is a 2003 stage musical that is a retelling of the L. Frank Baum novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. The musical is based on a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire” called “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West”.

49. Feature of many a Hawaiian restaurant : LANAI

A lanai is a type of veranda, and a design that originated in Hawaii. A kind blog reader tells me that the etymology of “lanai” seems unclear, but that the island name of “Lana’i” is not related.

53. Olympian queen : HERA

In Greek mythology, Hera was the wife of Zeus and was noted for her jealous and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband. The equivalent character to Hera in Roman mythology was Juno. Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.

57. Lock-picking tool : SLIM JIM

A slim jim is a thin strip of spring steel that is used to open car doors without using a key and without picking the lock. Instead, the slim jim by passes the lock and manipulates the levers and rods that operate the door.

Down

1. Actress Thompson : SADA

Sada Thompson was an actress from Des Moines, Iowa. Thompson is best known for playing the mother and wife in the eighties television drama series called “Family”.

2. Doomed shepherd : ABEL

In the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis, Cain murders his brother Abel. Subsequently, God asks Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?” Cain replies, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

4. Tequila, triple sec and lime juice : ATIRAGRAM (“Margarita” drink up)

No one seems to know for sure who first created the cocktail known as a margarita. The most plausible and oft-quoted is that it was invented in 1941 in Ensenada, Mexico. The barman mixed the drink for an important visitor, the daughter of the German ambassador. The daughter’s name was Margarita Henkel, and she lent her name to the new drink. The basic recipe for a margarita is a mixture of tequila, orange-flavored liqueur (like Cointreau) and lime juice.

6. Emperor relative : ADELIE

The Adélie penguin is found along the Antarctic coast, and are named after the Antarctic territory called Adélie Land that is claimed by France. Adélie Land was discovered by French explorer Jules Dumont D’Urville in 1840, and he named the territory after his wife Adéle.

The emperor penguin is the largest species of penguin, weighing in at 49-99 pounds fully grown. The emperor penguin is known for the incredible journey taken by the adults during the breeding season in the Antarctic winter. Females lay an egg and then trek 30-70 miles from the breeding colony to the sea to feed, returning to feed their chicks.

7. Jewel box item : CD-ROM

A CD case is also known as a jewel box, and I am not sure why …

8. Eight bits : BYTE

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It 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. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. And the prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and kilobyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

10. Champagne and orange juice : ASOMIM (“mimosa” drink up)

Where I come from, the cocktail known in North America as a mimosa is called a buck’s fizz, with the latter named for Buck’s Club in London where it was introduced in 1921. The mimosa came along a few years later, apparently first being served in the Paris Ritz. If you want to make a mimosa, it’s a 50-50 mix of champagne and orange juice, and it is very tasty …

11. Utah’s state gem : TOPAZ

Topaz is a semiprecious stone made from silicate containing aluminum and fluorine. Topaz is the state gemstone of Utah, and the rare blue topaz is the state gemstone of Texas.

12. Mmes. across the Pyrenees : SRAS

The Pyrénées is a mountain range that runs along the border between Spain and France. Nestled between the two countries, high in the mountains, is the lovely country of Andorra, an old haunt of my family during skiing season …

14. Rocky hills : TORS

A tor is a high, rocky hill. “Tor” comes from the Old English “torr”, the word for a tower or rock, which in turn comes from the Old Welsh “twrr” meaning a heap or a pile.

21. Bourbon, water, sugar syrup and garnish : PELUJ TNIM (“mint julep” drink up)

The mint julep is a bourbon-based cocktail that is associated with the American South, and with the Kentucky Derby in particular. If you’d like to make yourself a mint julep, one recipe is:

  • 3 oz of Bourbon
  • 4-6 sprigs of mint
  • granulated sugar to taste

24. Bird’s bill : NIB

“Nib” is a Scottish variant of the Old English word “neb”, with both meaning the beak of a bird. This usage of “nib” as a beak dates back to the 14th century, with “nib” meaning the tip of a pen or quill coming a little later, in the early 1600s.

26. __ Yello : MELLO

Like so many beverages introduced by the Coca-Cola Company, Mello Yello was launched to compete against a successful drink already on the market. Mello Yello first hit the shelves in 1979, and was designed to take market share from Pepsico’s “Mountain Dew”.

28. Soviet labor camp : GULAG

The Gulag was a government agency in the Soviet Union that administered forced labor camps. The term “gulag” was used for the camps themselves, especially when used for political dissidents. “GULag” is actually an acronym standing for the Russian “Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies”.

30. Oklahoma tribe : OTOE

The Otoe (also Oto) Native American tribe originated in the Great Lakes region as part of the Winnebago or Siouan tribes. The group that would become the Otoe broke away from the Winnebago and migrated southwestward, ending up in the Great Plains. In the plains the Otoe adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle dependent on the horse, with the American bison becoming central to their diet.

31. Sometimes offensive, briefly : NOT PC

To be “un-PC” is to be politically incorrect, not be politically correct (PC).

32. Dr. Phil was her frequent guest before getting his own show : OPRAH

Dr. Phil (McGraw) met Oprah Winfrey when he was hired to work with her as a legal consultant during the Amarillo Texas beef trial (when the industry sued Oprah for libel over “Mad Cow Disease” statements). Oprah was impressed with Dr. Phil and invited him onto her show, and we haven’t stopped seeing him since!

33. Eros or Eos : DEITY

Eros, the Greek god of love, gives rise to our word “erotic”, meaning “arousing sexual desire”. Also known as Amor, the Roman counterpart to Eros was Cupid.

In Greek mythology, Eos was the goddess of the dawn who lived at the edge of the ocean. Eos would wake each morning to welcome her brother Helios the sun. The Roman equivalent of Eos was Aurora.

36. Whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters : NATTAHNAM (“Manhattan” drink up)

The cocktail called a Manhattan is made from whiskey, sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters. I make my own version of a brandy Manhattan, using brandy, sweet vermouth and orange bitters.

42. __ Salvador : SAN

San Salvador is the capital of El Salvador. The city was founded by the Spanish 1525, although it was moved on two occasions early on, in 1528 and 1545. The name “San Salvador” translates as “Holy Savior”.

44. White rum, sugar, lime juice, soda water and garnish : OTIJOM (“mojito” drink up)

A mojito is a Cuban cocktail, although the exact origins appear to be unclear, as does the derivation of the name. Want one? Put 4 mint leaves in a glass, and add the juice of half a lime and a teaspoon of powdered sugar. Muddle the ingredients, smashing them together with a muddler or a spoon. Add some crushed ice, two ounces of white rum and stir. Top with a couple of ounces of club soda, and garnish with a sprig of mint and/or a slice of lime. Cheers!

45. Pomelo relative : CITRON

Most of our citrus fruits are hybrids of four original fruits. These are the pomelo, the mandarin, the papeda and the citron.

46. Beta follower : GAMMA

The Greek alphabet starts off with the letters alpha, beta, gamma …

49. Amphibious assault transports, for short : LSTS

“LST” stands for Landing Ship, Tank. LSTs are the large vessels used mainly in WWII that have doors at either ends through which tanks and other vehicles can roll off and onto beaches. The design concept persists to this day in the huge fleet of commercial roll-on/roll-off car ferries, all inspired by the LST.

52. 911 response gp. : EMTS

The first use of a national emergency phone number was in the UK in 1937, where the number 999 was introduced to call emergency services. If you need emergency services in the UK or Ireland to this day, you have to dial 999. It’s not really clear why 911 became the emergency number in the US. The most credible suggestion (to me) is that when it was introduced by the FCC in 1967, it was a number that “fit” with the numbers already used by AT&T for free services (211-long distance; 411-information; 611-repair service).

54. Kitchen gadget brand : EKCO

The EKCO name dates back to 1888 when Edward Katzinger founded his company in Chicago, to make baking pans. The acronym EKCO stands for “Edward Katzinger Co”.

56. Abbey area : APSE

The apse of a church or cathedral is a semicircular recess in an outer wall, usually with a half-dome as a roof and often where there resides an altar. Originally, apses were used as burial places for the clergy and also for storage of important relics.

58. British author’s conclusion? : -ISE

Not only is Noah Webster’s name inextricably linked with his series of dictionaries, but he is also renowned as an advocate for English spelling reform. He argued that “traditional” English is hard to learn, and that it should be simplified and standardized (instead of “standardised”). He published spelling books that were used in schools, and from edition to edition he changed the spelling of words in order to simplify the language. Examples are the use of “s” over “c” in words like “defense” (in Ireland we have defence and defense depending on usage), “-re” became “-er” as in center instead of centre (reversing the influence of French), and he dropped one of the Ls in words like traveler (I learned “traveller”). Mind you, he also spelled “tongue” as “tung”, but he didn’t get very far with that one.

60. Terre dans la mer : ILE

In French, an “île” (island) is “terre dans la mer” (land in the sea).

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. __ Lake, village near Lake Placid : SARANAC
8. Skedaddles : BEATS IT
15. Somewhat off : A BIT ODD
16. “Choose!” : YES OR NO?!
17. Come through : DELIVER
18. Poker holding : TWO PAIR
19. A or O : ALER
20. Easy pace : LOPE
22. Clipper trio : MASTS
23. “Ninja Scroll” genre : ANIME
25. Domain introduced in 2001 : BIZ
26. Rod Stewart’s “__ May” : MAGGIE
29. Shuttle site : LOOM
31. Affirmative act : NOD
34. Outlying community : EXURB
35. Tesla, e.g. : AUTO
36. “Not a chance” : NOPE
37. “Zorba the Greek” Oscar winner Kedrova : LILA
38. Bottom of a food chain? : MCJOB
39. Abruzzi bell town : ATRI
40. Fertile soil : LOAM
41. Picasso output : ARTE
42. Mar. honoree : ST PAT
43. “r u kidding?!” : OMG!
44. Team that pulls for you : OXEN
45. Like an earworm : CATCHY
46. Peugeot’s 208 or 308, e.g. : GTI
47. Tony winner Menzel of “Wicked” : IDINA
49. Feature of many a Hawaiian restaurant : LANAI
52. Cast off : EMIT
53. Olympian queen : HERA
57. Lock-picking tool : SLIM JIM
59. Bar exhortation … and a hint to how to answer five puzzle clues : DRINK UP!
61. Highest : TOPMOST
62. Consoles : SOLACES
63. Bun seeds : SESAMES
64. Request at a bar : ONE MORE

Down

1. Actress Thompson : SADA
2. Doomed shepherd : ABEL
3. Irk : RILE
4. Tequila, triple sec and lime juice : ATIRAGRAM (“Margarita” drink up)
5. Sweet Potato Awareness Mo. : NOV
6. Emperor relative : ADELIE
7. Jewel box item : CD-ROM
8. Eight bits : BYTE
9. “Ick!” : EEW!
10. Champagne and orange juice : ASOMIM (“mimosa” drink up)
11. Utah’s state gem : TOPAZ
12. Mmes. across the Pyrenees : SRAS
13. Down but not out : IN IT
14. Rocky hills : TORS
21. Bourbon, water, sugar syrup and garnish : PELUJ TNIM (“mint julep” drink up)
24. Bird’s bill : NIB
25. Bonehead : BOOB
26. __ Yello : MELLO
27. Assumed truth : AXIOM
28. Soviet labor camp : GULAG
30. Oklahoma tribe : OTOE
31. Sometimes offensive, briefly : NOT PC
32. Dr. Phil was her frequent guest before getting his own show : OPRAH
33. Eros or Eos : DEITY
35. Real estate parcel : ACRE
36. Whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters : NATTAHNAM (“Manhattan” drink up)
38. Dress style : MAXI
42. __ Salvador : SAN
44. White rum, sugar, lime juice, soda water and garnish : OTIJOM (“mojito” drink up)
45. Pomelo relative : CITRON
46. Beta follower : GAMMA
48. Playground comeback : DID SO!
49. Amphibious assault transports, for short : LSTS
50. Botanical balm : ALOE
51. Bites playfully : NIPS
52. 911 response gp. : EMTS
54. Kitchen gadget brand : EKCO
55. One with second thoughts : RUER
56. Abbey area : APSE
58. British author’s conclusion? : -ISE
60. Terre dans la mer : ILE

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