LA Times Crossword Answers 7 Apr 2018, Saturday

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Constructed by: Claire Muscat
Edited by: Rich Norris

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Today’s Theme: None

Bill’s time: 9m 50s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11. __ punk: No Doubt genre : SKA

No Doubt is a rock band that formed in 1986 in Anaheim, California. No Doubt’s lead singer is Gwen Stefani.

Ska punk? No idea …

14. Not go off-script : TOE THE LINE

The idiomatic expression “to toe the line” means “to obey”. The etymology of the phrase is disputed, although it is likely to come from the Royal Navy. Barefooted sailors were required to stand to attention for inspection lined up along the seams for the wooden deck, hence “toeing the line”.

15. Zero-star fare : GLOP

Glop is food that’s deemed unappetizing. “Glop” is imitative of the sound of inferior food hitting the plate.

19. Xi preceders : NUS

The Latin equivalent of the Greek letter nu is N. An uppercase nu looks just like the Latin capital N. However, the lowercase nu looks like our lowercase V. Very confusing …

22. Duplicates : DITTOS

The word “ditto” was originally used in Italian (from Tuscan dialect) to avoid repetition of the names of months in a series of dates. So, “ditto” is just another wonderful import from that lovely land …

24. Dogs follow them : SCENTS

Dogs have an amazing sense of smell, and scientists tell us that it is 10,000 to 100,000 more acute than human olfactory capability. We have about 6 million olfactory receptors in our noses, compared to about 300 million in the nose of a dog. When we breathe in through our noses, the all of that air goes straight to the lungs for respiration. In dogs, about 12% of inspired air is directed to a part of the nose that is dedicated to the sense of smell.

26. Ruled by thieves : KLEPTOCRATIC

Kleptocrats are corrupt rulers who use their power to their own benefit, stealing resources from their realm and exploiting their people. The word “kleptocracy” comes from the related term “kleptomania”. The Greek word “kleptein” translates as “to steal”.

33. Crispy triangle : DORITO

The product that was to become Doritos was a creation at the Casa de Fritos in Disneyland in the early sixties. A marketing executive from Frito-Lay noticed how well the snack was selling in the park, and made a deal to produce the chips under the name “Doritos”, starting in 1964. “Doritos” translates from Spanish as “little bits of gold”.

34. One of two possible Passover mos. : APR

The Jewish holiday of Passover begins on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan and lasts for seven or eight days, depending on the Jewish denomination. Nisan usually falls in March-April on the Gregorian calendar.

37. “It’s Raining __”: The Weather Girls hit : MEN

“It’s Raining Men” has been labeled as a dance anthem, gay anthem and a classic female anthem; whatever anthem you relate to, it’s a fun song. It sounds very “disco”, and was indeed written in the late disco era. The Disco Divas like Donna Summer passed on it so it was only in the early eighties that it surfaced, when it was recorded by the one-hit wonder act called the Weather Girls. Geri Halliwell came out with a version in 2001, which is the version that I actually prefer, largely because of it’s featured on the soundtrack of the movie “Bridget Jones’s Diary”.

45. Bolo ties or bell-bottoms : FASHION CRAZE

I’ve never worn a bolo tie, and was surprised to discover that it is a relatively recent invention. The first bolo tie was apparently produced in Wickenburg, Arizona in the late 1940s by a silversmith. The bolo takes its name from the boleadora, an Argentine lariat.

48. “Camptown Races” refrain syllables : DOO-DAH

“Camptown Races” is a comic song written in African-American vernacular dialect. The song was composed by Stephen Foster in 1850, and was originally titled “Gwine to Run All Night”.

De Camptown ladies sing dis song—Doo-dah! doo-dah!
De Camp-town race-track five miles long—Oh! doo-dah day!
I come down dah wid my hat caved in—Doo-dah! doo-dah!
I go back home wid a pocket full of tin—Oh! doo-dah day!

Gwine to run all night!
Gwine to run all day!
I’ll bet my money on de bob-tail nag—
Somebody bet on de bay

56. Media co. based in D.C. and Fla. : UPI

Founded in 1958, United Press International (UPI) used to be one of the biggest news agencies in the world, sending out news by wire to the major newspapers. UPI ran into trouble with the change in media formats at the end of the twentieth century and lost many of its clients as the afternoon newspapers shut down due to the advent of television news. UPI, which once employed thousands, still exists today but with just a fraction of that workforce.

57. Best Actress between Jennifer and Julianne : CATE

Jennifer Lawrence (sometimes “J.Law” in the press) is an actress from Louisville, Kentucky who really hit the big time when she was cast as Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist in the “Hunger Games” series of films. Lawrence won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the 2012 film “Silver Linings Playbook”. At 22 years of age, she was the second-youngest recipient of the award (Marlee Matlin was 21 when she won for 1986’s “Children of a Lesser God”).

Cate Blanchett is a great actress from Australia, and a winner of an Academy Award for playing Katherine Hepburn in “The Aviator”. Winning for that role made Blanchett the first person to win an Academy Award for playing an actor (Hepburn) who had also won an Oscar. Now that, that is trivial information …

Actress Julianne Moore won her Best Actress Oscar for playing the title role in the 2014 film “Still Alice”, which deals with the subject of Alzheimer’s disease. As well as being a talented actor, Moore is a successful children’s author. Her 2007 book “Freckleface Strawberry” became a New York Times Best Seller, and was inspired by the teasing she received as a child for having freckles.

Down

2. Raccoon kin : COATI

A coati is a member of the raccoon family and is also known as the Brazilian aardvark, or the snookum bear. The coati is native to Central and South America, but can also be found in the southwest of the United States.

The raccoon is native to North America. In captivity, raccoons can live to over 20 years of age, but in the wild they only live two or three years. The main causes for the shorter lifespan are hunting and road traffic.

4. Grisham hero, often: Abbr. : ATT

John Grisham is a lawyer and an incredibly successful author best known for his legal thrillers. After graduating from law school, Grisham practiced law for about ten years and then went into politics. He served in the Mississippi House of Representatives for six years, during which time he wrote his first novel, “A Time to Kill”.

5. Carbolic acid : PHENOL

Phenol is also known as carbolic acid. Phenol can be used as an embalming fluid, although more usually bodies are embalmed using formaldehyde. Injections of phenol were used extensively by the Nazis during the WWII particularly in concentration camps, as a means of execution.

10. Franklin spelled it out : RESPECT

“Respect” is a song by Otis Redding, and one that he recorded himself in 1965. It became a hit when Aretha Franklin made her famous cover version in 1967. The Redding and Franklin versions have different storylines though, and different musical “feels”.

I think Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, had a tough life. Franklin had her first son when she was just 13-years-old, and her second at 15. In 2008, “Rolling Stone” magazine ranked Franklin as number one in their list of the greatest singers of all time.

12. Laker great, familiarly : KOBE

Kobe Bryant played basketball for the LA Lakers. Kobe Bryant got his name from a menu, would you believe? His parents were in a Japanese restaurant and liked the name of “Kobe” beef, the beef from around the city of Kobe on the island of Honshu in Japan.

13. Arcing recess : 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.

15. Former Fox News anchor Van Susteren : GRETA

I remember watching Greta Van Susteren as a legal commentator on CNN during the O. J. Simpson murder trial. She parlayed those appearances into a permanent slot as co-host of CNN’s “Burden of Proof”, before becoming host of her own show on the Fox News Channel called “On the Record”. Van Susteren parted company with Fox in 2016, and apparently that parting wasn’t a happy one. She was immediately replaced on air, without giving her a chance to bid adieu to her TV audience.

21. 2001 scandal subject : ENRON

After all the trials following the exposure of fraud at Enron, several of the key players ended up in jail. Andrew Fastow was the Chief Financial Officer. He plea-bargained and received ten years without parole, and became the key witness in the trials of others. Even Fastow’s wife was involved and she was sentenced to one year for helping her husband hide money. Jeffrey Skilling (ex-CEO) was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months. Kenneth Lay (CEO) died in 2006 after he had been found guilty but before he could be sentenced. The accounting firm Arthur Andersen was found guilty of obstruction of justice for shredding thousands of pertinent documents and deleting emails and files (a decision that the Supreme Court later overturned on a technicality). But still, Arthur Andersen collapsed under the weight of the scandal and 85,000 people lost their jobs (despite only a handful being directly involved with Enron).

23. Ring stats : TKOS

Technical knockout (TKO)

27. College in Claremont, California : POMONA

Pomona College is a private school in Claremont, California in Los Angeles County. The name “Pomona” comes from the original location of the college in Pomona, California. The college opened for classes in Pomona in a rental house in 1888. The following year it moved to the site of an unfinished hotel in Claremont, but retained the Pomona name.

28. __ jure: by the law itself : IPSO

“Ipso jure” is Latin for “by operation of law”. It’s a legal term that I don’t really understand, to be honest …

31. Ancient performance halls : ODEA

In Ancient Greece an odeon (also “odeum”) was like a small theater, with “odeon” literally meaning a “building for musical competition”. Odea were used in both Greece and Rome for entertainments such as musical shows and poetry readings.

32. Shares expenses, in a way : GOES DUTCH

A Dutch door has a top and a bottom equally divided in area. There is a suggestion that the term “go Dutch” originated with the Dutch door. The bill is “split”, and so are Dutch doors. That said, when people “go Dutch” they each pay for themselves, as opposed to even splitting the tab.

36. Star-studded hunter : ORION

The very recognizable constellation of Orion is named for the Greek god Orion, the Hunter. If you take a look at the star in Orion’s “right shoulder”, the second brightest star in the constellation, you might notice that it is quite red in color. This is the famous star called Betelgeuse, a red supergiant, a huge star that is on its way out. Betelgeuse is expected to explode into a supernova within the next thousand years or so. You don’t want to miss that …

42. Like much table salt : IODIZED

Potassium iodide is an important nutrient, and is the most common additive used in “iodized” table salt. The addition of a source of iodine to table salt is a public health measure taken prevent iodine deficiency. Additional iodine in the diet isn’t really necessary for those who eat a reasonable amount of seafood, as there is a lot of iodine in the oceans.

47. Lawn grass genus : ZOYSIA

Zoysia is a creeping grass that is widely used for lawns in temperate climates.

50. Arab Spring city : TUNIS

Tunis is the capital of Tunisia, and gives the country her name. Tunis is on the Mediterranean coast, and is located just a few miles from the site of ancient Carthage.

The term “Arab Spring” has been applied to the wave of protests, riots and civil wars that impacted the Arab world from 2010 to 2012. The uprisings were sparked by the Tunisian Revolution at the end of 2010 that led to the ouster of the longtime president and the institution of democratic elections. The period of instability that followed in some Arab League countries has been dubbed the “Arab Winter”

51. “__ begins in delight and ends in wisdom”: Frost : A POEM

The wonderful poet Robert Frost was a native of San Francisco, but lived most of life in New England. He also spent a few years in England, just before WWI. Frost was well recognized for his work during his lifetime, and received four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He was also Vermont’s first Poet Laureate, a position that he held from 1961 until his death in 1963.

53. Antioxidant-rich berry : ACAI

Açaí (pronounced “ass-aye-ee”) is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

54. Chocolates, e.g. : LABS

The Labrador (Lab) breed of dog has been around at least since 1814. The breed comes in three registered colors: black, yellow and chocolate.

59. WWII arena : ETO

European Theater of Operations (ETO)

60. Han and Leia’s son Kylo __ : REN

Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa in the “Star Wars” universe. The character’s birth name was Ben Solo. He was trained as a Jedi knight by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, Ben came to embrace the Dark Side, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Ren is played by actor Adam Driver.

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Where thoughts can be organized : SCRAP PAPER
11. __ punk: No Doubt genre : SKA
14. Not go off-script : TOE THE LINE
15. Zero-star fare : GLOP
16. They’re hidden annually : EASTER EGGS
17. Holds up : ROBS
18. Got into a pickle? : ATE
19. Xi preceders : NUS
20. Kind of baseball league for pre-Little Leaguers : PEE WEE
22. Duplicates : DITTOS
24. Dogs follow them : SCENTS
26. Ruled by thieves : KLEPTOCRATIC
30. Like some restaurant boxes : TO-GO
33. Crispy triangle : DORITO
34. One of two possible Passover mos. : APR
35. Indignant reply : I DO SO!
37. “It’s Raining __”: The Weather Girls hit : MEN
38. Sip : NURSE
40. Charge : FEE
41. Lost control in a big way : RIOTED
44. Throw below deck, say : STOW
45. Bolo ties or bell-bottoms : FASHION CRAZE
48. “Camptown Races” refrain syllables : DOO-DAH
49. Brick partner : MORTAR
53. Graduates : ALUMNI
55. One using bugs : SPY
56. Media co. based in D.C. and Fla. : UPI
57. Best Actress between Jennifer and Julianne : CATE
58. Targets : ZEROES IN ON
62. Building blocks for tots : ABCS
63. They take forever : ETERNITIES
64. Kinda equivalent : ISH
65. “Quit it with the attitude!” : DON’T SASS ME!

Down

1. Begin to fast? : STEAD-
2. Raccoon kin : COATI
3. Start over : RESET
4. Grisham hero, often: Abbr. : ATT
5. Carbolic acid : PHENOL
6. Read carefully : PERUSED
7. They may be blonde or red : ALES
8. Glutton : PIG
9. University dept. : ENG
10. Franklin spelled it out : RESPECT
11. What you might get on a day off : SLOW START
12. Laker great, familiarly : KOBE
13. Arcing recess : APSE
15. Former Fox News anchor Van Susteren : GRETA
21. 2001 scandal subject : ENRON
23. Ring stats : TKOS
24. Extend : STRETCH
25. Expression maker : COINER
27. College in Claremont, California : POMONA
28. __ jure: by the law itself : IPSO
29. Word with neck or cut : CREW
30. Row : TIFF
31. Ancient performance halls : ODEA
32. Shares expenses, in a way : GOES DUTCH
36. Star-studded hunter : ORION
39. Intervention target : USER
42. Like much table salt : IODIZED
43. Depresses : DAMPENS
46. Development units : HOMES
47. Lawn grass genus : ZOYSIA
50. Arab Spring city : TUNIS
51. “__ begins in delight and ends in wisdom”: Frost : A POEM
52. Certain cycle : RINSE
53. Antioxidant-rich berry : ACAI
54. Chocolates, e.g. : LABS
55. Kind : SORT
59. WWII arena : ETO
60. Han and Leia’s son Kylo __ : REN
61. “__ a date!” : IT’S

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