LA Times Crossword Answers 3 May 2018, Thursday

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Constructed by: Jeffrey Wechsler
Edited by: Rich Norris

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Today’s Reveal Answer: Chocolate Swirls

Themed answers include the letters CHOCOLATE. Those letters are circled in the grid, and are also changed in order, are in a SWIRL:

  • 59A. Ice cream features found, in a way, in this puzzle’s circles : CHOCOLATE SWIRLS
  • 16A. Natural analog of sonar : BAT ECHOLOCATION
  • 32A. Ones who have class? : SCHOOLTEACHERS
  • 36A. Old General Motors model : CHEVROLET COACH

Bill’s time: 7m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Liberty __ : BELL

The Liberty Bell was commissioned in 1752 and was installed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The bell bears the inscription “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof”, a quotation from the Book of Leviticus in the Bible. Famously, the bell cracked when it was first rung in Philadelphia after arriving from the foundry where it was made in London, England. The bell’s fame originated with a short story by George Lippard published in 1847 that gave a fictional account of an old bell-ringer ringing it on July 4, 1776 upon hearing that the Second Continental Congress had voted for independence. That ringing of the bell never actually happened, even though the account was constantly presented as fact in school texts around the country for generations.

15. River through Florence : ARNO

The Arno is the principal river in the Tuscany region of Italy, and passes through the cities of Florence and Pisa. Famously the Arno flooded in 1966, the worst flood in the region for centuries. There were numerous deaths and extensive destruction of priceless art treasures, particularly in Florence.

16. Natural analog of sonar : BAT ECHOLOCATION

Echolocation when used by animals is known as biosonar. The best-known example of an animal using biosonar is probably the bat, although not all species of bat use sounds to locate objects.

18. Toyota RAV4, e.g. : UTE

The Toyota RAV4 is Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV, or “ute” for short). The RAV4 name stands for “Recreational Active Vehicle with 4-wheel drive”. Inventive, huh?

20. VW Golf model : GTI

The Volkswagen Rabbit is a small, front-wheel drive car that is sold as the Volkswagen Golf outside of North America. There is a very popular GTI version of the Golf that was introduced in 1976. The initialism “GTI” stands for Grand Tourer Injection.

21. Fronded plant : FERN

Ferns are unlike mosses in that they have xylem and phloem, making them vascular plants. They also have stems, leaves and roots, but they do not have seeds and flowers, and reproduce using spores. Spores differ from seeds in that they have very little stored food.

23. Small cube? : EIGHT

2 x 2 x 2 = 8

28. SDI weapon : ABM

An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a rocket designed to intercept and destroy a ballistic missile (as one might expect from the name). A ballistic missile, as opposed to a cruise missile, is guided during the initial launch phase but later in flight just relies on thrust and gravity (hence “ballistic”) to arrive at its target. As an aside, an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than 3,500 miles.

One of the positive outcomes of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, aka “Star Wars”) was a change in US defense strategy. The new approach was to use missiles to destroy incoming hostile weapons, rather than using missiles to destroy the nation attacking the country. The former doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction went by the apt acronym of MAD …

31. Jazz singer Laine : CLEO

Cleo Laine is a jazz singer from England who is noted for her remarkable range of nearly four octaves. Laine is the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in each of the classical, jazz and popular music categories. My favorite of her recordings is “He Was Beautiful”, which is also known as “Cavatina” and is a version of the theme from the film “The Deer Hunter”.

35. Developing, biologically : IN UTERO

“In utero” is a Latin term meaning “in the uterus”. The Latin “uterus” (plural “uteri”) translates as both “womb” and “belly”. The Latin word was derived from the Greek “hystera” that also means “womb”, which gives us the words “hysterectomy”, and “hysterical”.

43. Literary award with a spaceship logo : HUGO

The Hugo Awards are presented annually for excellence in science fiction and fantasy writing. The awards are named for Hugo Gernsback, founder of the sci-fi magazine “Amazing Stories”.

45. Nothing new : OLD HAT

The use of “old hat” to mean something “out of date, stale” started about 1911. Before that, the term “old hat” meant something very different, and very vulgar. “Old hat” was the name given to a very private part of the female anatomy, the idea being that it was “often felt” (as in a “felt hat”). I just don’t know what to say …

47. Billiards concern : ANGLE

The name of the game billiards comes from the French word “billiard” that originally described the wooden cue stick. The Old French “bille” translates as “stick of wood”.

49. Phantasy Star game maker : SEGA

“Phantasy Star” is a series of video games published by Sega starting in 1987. That’s all I know …

50. Big name in ATMs : NCR

NCR is an American company that has been in business since 1884, and was originally called the National Cash Register Company. The company has done well in a market where new technologies seem to be constantly disrupting the status quo.

Automatic Teller Machine (ATM)

51. Egret habitats : MARSHES

Egrets are a group of several species of white herons. Many egret species were faced with extinction in the 1800s and early 1900s due to plume hunting, a practice driven by the demand for egret plumes that could be incorporated into hats.

63. Harley-Davidson Museum city : MILWAUKEE

The Harley-Davidson motorcycle company was started up in the very early 1900s by two childhood friends, William Harley and Arthur Davidson, . Their first design was in effect an engine hooked up to a pedal bicycle, but the 116 cc cylinder capacity simply couldn’t generate enough power to get up the hills of their native city of Milwaukee. The pair came up with a redesigned model that had a cylinder capacity of 405 cc, which the partners built in a shed at the back of Davidson’s house. In 1906, the partners built their first factory, located where the company’s headquarters is to this day, on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Famously, Harley motorcycles are nicknamed “hogs”.

64. Cholesterol nos. : LDLS

LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is one of the compounds responsible for transporting fats around the body. When LDL is combined with cholesterol it can be referred to as “bad cholesterol”. This is because LDL actually transports cholesterol into the inner walls of blood vessels leading to atherosclerosis.

65. Presently : ANON

“Anon” originally meant “at once” and evolved into today’s meaning of “soon” apparently just because the word was misused over time.

66. Scrip items : MEDS

“Scrip” is an informal term meaning “prescription”.

Down

1. Hats like Maurice Chevalier’s : BOATERS

A boater is a straw hat often associated with boating, hence the name.

Maurice Chevalier was an actor and singer from Paris who had a remarkably successful career in Hollywood, particularly in the late fifties and early sixties. Chevalier’s most memorable roles were perhaps in “Gigi” (1958), “Can-Can” (1960) and “Fanny” (1961).

2. Intestinal : ENTERIC

The Greek word for “intestine” is “enteron”.

3. Director with three Oscars : LEE

Taiwanese director Ang Lee sure has directed a mixed bag of films, mixed in terms of genre but not in terms of quality. He was at the helm for such classics as “Sense & Sensibility” (my personal favorite), “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “Hulk”, “Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi”.

4. Welsh : llyn :: Scots : __ : LOCH

“Loch” is the Scottish Gaelic word for “lake”. The Irish Gaelic word is “lough”, and the Welsh word is “llyn”.

6. “The Wind in the Willows” figure : MOLE

“The Wind in the Willows” is a classic children’s novel first published in 1908. Featured in the story are characters such as Mole, Ratty, Mr. Toad and Mr. Badger. The story’s author was Kenneth Grahame, a man who held the exalted position of Secretary of the Bank of England.

7. They know the ropes : PROS

As one might expect perhaps, the phrase “learning the ropes” is nautical in origin. A new recruit on a sailing vessel would have to learn how to tie the appropriate knots and learn which rope controlled which sail or spar.

8. Schism group : SECT

A schism is a split or a division, especially in a religion.

12. Fish that sound good in Spanish : BONITOS

Bonito is the name given to several species of fish, intermediate in size between mackerel and tuna. The name comes directly from the Spanish word for “pretty”. In some parts of Spain, tuna is known as “Bonito del Norte”.

14. Density symbol, in physics : RHO

Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”, although it is equivalent to the Roman letter R.

22. Book before Esth. : NEH

In the Bible, the Book of Nehemiah is followed by the Book of Esther.

24. Hessian pronoun : ICH

Hesse is a German state. The capital of Hesse is Wiesbaden, although the largest city in the state is Frankfurt.

26. Crime movie genre : NOIR

The expression “film noir” has French origins, but only in that it was coined by a French critic in describing a style of Hollywood film. The term, meaning “black film” in French, was first used by Nino Frank in 1946. Film noir often applies to a movie with a melodramatic plot and a private eye or detective at its center. Good examples would be “The Big Sleep” and “D.O.A”.

27. Name on a museum wall : DONOR

The term “museum” comes from the ancient Greek word “mouseion” that denoted a temple dedicated to the “Muses”. The Muses were the patrons of the arts in Greek mythology.

29. Sugar source : BEET

The biggest producer of sugar beets in the world is Russia, with France and the US in second and third place.

30. Half of a call-and-response game : MARCO

Marco Polo is a game of tag that is played in a swimming pool.

33. Whopper : LULU

We call a remarkable thing or a person a “lulu”. The term was coined in honor of Lulu Hurst, the Georgia Wonder, who was a stage magician active in the 1880s.

36. Area around the altar : CHANCEL

The chancel of a Christian church is the space surrounding the altar. The chancel sometimes includes the choir and the pulpit.

42. Tries for a better price : HAGGLES

Our verb “to haggle”, meaning to argue about the price, originally meant “to cut unevenly”. The suggestion is that haggling is chopping away at the price.

46. New Mexico county bordering Colorado : TAOS

New Mexico’s Taos County was formed in 1852 as one of the nine original counties in the New Mexico Territory.

52. Diva Gluck : ALMA

Alma Gluck was the stage name of Romanian-born American soprano Reba Feinsohn. Gluck’s second marriage was to violinist Efrem Zimbalist. Gluck and Zimbalist’s son was Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. the noted actor and star of television’s “77 Sunset Strip”.

53. Dust Bowl deficiency : RAIN

The Dust Bowl was a period in which severe dust storms ravaged the American and Canadian Prairies in the thirties. A major factor in the storms was the loss of the deep-rooted grasses native to the land that had been displaced by intensive farming. Without the grasses, the topsoil was blown away in a period of drought.

54. WWII invasion city : ST-LO

Saint-Lô is a town in Normandy that was occupied by Germany in 1940. Saint-Lo stood at a strategic crossroads and so there was intense fighting there during the Normandy invasion of 1944. After a prolonged bombardment, very little of the town was left standing.

57. Like many laps : SWUM

“Swam” is the simple past tense of the verb “to swim”, as in “I swam in my pool”. “Swum” is the verb’s past participle, as in “I have swum in your pool”.

60. Pitcher Young and painter Twombly : CYS

Cy Young was a pitcher in the major leagues from 1890-1911. Young is remembered for pitching the first perfect game of baseball’s modern era. Soon after he died in 1955, the Cy Young Award was created and is presented to the best pitcher in each baseball season.

Cy Twombly was an American painter who was nicknamed for baseball star Cy Young. Cy Twombly’s father was also nicknamed “Cy”, and indeed pitched for the Chicago White Sox. Cy Twombly, Jr. moved to Italy in 1957, when he was in his late thirties.

61. Presidential nickname : IKE

When the future president was growing up, the Eisenhowers used the nickname “Ike” for all seven boys in the family, as “Ike” was seen as an abbreviation for the family name. “Big Ike” was Edgar, the second oldest boy. “Little/Young Ike” was Dwight, who was the third son born. Dwight had no sisters.

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Liberty __ : BELL
5. Troublesome types : IMPS
9. Cleaning tool : SWAB
13. Any number : ONE OR MORE
15. River through Florence : ARNO
16. Natural analog of sonar : BAT ECHOLOCATION
18. Toyota RAV4, e.g. : UTE
19. The best policy, so it’s said : HONESTY
20. VW Golf model : GTI
21. Fronded plant : FERN
23. Small cube? : EIGHT
25. Facebook __ : FRIEND
28. SDI weapon : ABM
31. Jazz singer Laine : CLEO
32. Ones who have class? : SCHOOLTEACHERS
35. Developing, biologically : IN UTERO
36. Old General Motors model : CHEVROLET COACH
43. Literary award with a spaceship logo : HUGO
44. Head for the hills : RUN
45. Nothing new : OLD HAT
47. Billiards concern : ANGLE
49. Phantasy Star game maker : SEGA
50. Big name in ATMs : NCR
51. Egret habitats : MARSHES
58. Braggart’s abundance : EGO
59. Ice cream features found, in a way, in this puzzle’s circles : CHOCOLATE SWIRLS
62. Hard to control : EELY
63. Harley-Davidson Museum city : MILWAUKEE
64. Cholesterol nos. : LDLS
65. Presently : ANON
66. Scrip items : MEDS

Down

1. Hats like Maurice Chevalier’s : BOATERS
2. Intestinal : ENTERIC
3. Director with three Oscars : LEE
4. Welsh : llyn :: Scots : __ : LOCH
5. “__ your side” : I’M ON
6. “The Wind in the Willows” figure : MOLE
7. They know the ropes : PROS
8. Schism group : SECT
9. Wasn’t used : SAT
10. Squirm : WRIGGLE
11. “And __ thing … ” : ANOTHER
12. Fish that sound good in Spanish : BONITOS
14. Density symbol, in physics : RHO
16. Like bodybuilders : BUFF
17. Right at sea? : AYE
22. Book before Esth. : NEH
24. Hessian pronoun : ICH
26. Crime movie genre : NOIR
27. Name on a museum wall : DONOR
28. When some news shows begin : AT TEN
29. Sugar source : BEET
30. Half of a call-and-response game : MARCO
33. Whopper : LULU
34. “Very nice!” : COOL!
36. Area around the altar : CHANCEL
37. Bent (over) : HUNCHED
38. Asian appetizer : EGG ROLL
39. Remote control abbr. : VOL
40. Cause of a paper weight increase : ADS
41. Brightened : CHEERED
42. Tries for a better price : HAGGLES
46. New Mexico county bordering Colorado : TAOS
48. Punk rock subgenre : EMO
52. Diva Gluck : ALMA
53. Dust Bowl deficiency : RAIN
54. WWII invasion city : ST-LO
55. Cut : HEWN
56. Spanish “that” : ESA
57. Like many laps : SWUM
60. Pitcher Young and painter Twombly : CYS
61. Presidential nickname : IKE

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