LA Times Crossword Answers 5 Oct 12, Friday

CROSSWORD SETTER: Bruce Venzke
THEME: Cats and Dogs … today’s puzzle contains a quip:

17A. Start of a quip A DOG COMES WHEN HE
27A. Quip, part 2 IS CALLED, BUT A
38A. Quip, part 3 CAT WILL
48A. Quip, part 4 TAKE A MESSAGE
62A. End of the quip AND GET BACK TO YOU

COMPLETION TIME: 11m 42s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Seat of Florida’s Marion County OCALA
The city of Ocala, Florida was founded near a historic village with the same name. In the local Timucua language “Ocala” means “Big Hammock”. Thoroughbred horse farming in Florida started in Ocala, back in 1943. Some folks today call Ocala the “Horse Capital of the World”, but I bet that’s disputed by others …

6. Airhead LOON
The slang term “loon” for a deranged person probably comes from the loud cry of the bird, the loon, but it is also probably influenced by the word “lunatic”.

10. Nonkosher TREF
According to Jewish dietary law, “kosher” food is “fit” to eat, and food that is not kosher is called “treif” (or tref).

14. Tijuana address SENOR
Tijuana is the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California, and lies just across the US-Mexico border from San Diego. Tijuana is also the most westerly of all Mexican cities. A lot of Tijuana’s growth took place in the twenties as tourists flocked south of the border during the days of prohibition in the US. One of the many casinos and hotels that flourished at that time was Hotel Caesar’s in the Avenida Revolución area. Hotel Caesar’s claims to be the birthplace of the now ubiquitous Caesar Salad.

15. Cooper’s tool ADZE
An adze (also adz) is similar to an axe, but different in that the blade of an adze is set at right angles to the tool’s shaft. An axe’s blade is set in line with the shaft.

A cooper is a craftsman who makes wooden vessels, such as barrels.

20. Berry of “F Troop” KEN
Ken Berry is an actor, singer and dancer from Moline, Illinois. Berry is most associated with his role as single parent Sam Jones on television’s “Mayberry RFD”. Berry led the cast of this “Andy Griffiths Show” spin-off, in effect taking over from Andy Griffith when he decided to leave the original show. Berry also played one of the main characters on “F-Troop”.

Relatively few people outside of the US saw the American sitcom “F-Troop”, which was made in the sixties. I remember watching the show as a young lad because it was picked up by the Irish national television service. The only other country that showed “F-Troop” was Australia.

21. Network with NEA funding PBS
The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) was founded in 1970, and is my favorite of the broadcast networks. I love PBS’s drama and science shows in particular, and always watch the election results coming in with the NewsHour team. PBS’s Big Bird seems to be making the news in the current election cycle …

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an agency funded by the federal government that offers support and financing for artistic projects. The NEA was created by an Act of Congress in 1965. Between 1965 and 2008, the NEA awarded over $4 billion to the arts, with Congress authorizing around $170 million annually through the eighties and much of the nineties. That funding was cut to less than $100 million in the late nineties due to pressure from conservatives concerned about the use of funds, but it is now back over the $150 million mark. I wonder how long that will last though …

26. Contemporary of Dashiell ERLE
I must have read all of the Perry Mason books when I was in college. I think they kept me sane when I was facing the pressure of exams. Author Erle Stanley Gardner was himself a lawyer, although he didn’t get into the profession the easy way. Gardner went to law school, but got himself suspended after a month. So, he became a self-taught attorney and opened his own law office in Merced, California. Understandably, he gave up the law once his novels became successful.

35. Want ad initials EOE
An Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE).

36. First name in fashion YVES
Yves Saint-Laurent was a French fashion designer, actually born in Algeria. Saint-Laurent started off working as an assistant to Christian Dior at the age of 17. Dior died just four years later, and as a very young man Saint-Laurent was named head of the House of Dior. However, in 1950 Saint-Laurent was conscripted into the French Army and ended up in a military hospital after suffering a mental breakdown from the hazing inflicted on him by his fellow soldiers. His treatment included electroshock therapy and administration of sedatives and psychoactive drugs. He was released from prison, managed to pull his life back together and started his own fashion house. A remarkable story …

42. Lodge member ELK
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) was founded in 1868 and is a social club that has about a million members today. The Elks started out as a group of men getting together in a “club” in order to get around the legal opening hours of taverns in New York City. The club took on a new role as it started to look out for poor families of members who passed away. The club now accepts African Americans as members (since the seventies) and women (since the nineties), but atheists still aren’t welcome.

43. Cocktail party irritant SNOB
Back in the 1780s, a “snob” was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.

45. Agnus __ DEI
“Agnus Dei” is Latin for “Lamb of God”, a term used in Christian faiths for Jesus Christ, symbolizing His role as a sacrificial offering to atone for the sins of man.

46. 80% of them come from South Australia OPALS
97% of the world’s opals come from Australia, so it’s no surprise perhaps that the opal is the national gemstone of the country. The state of South Australia provides the bulk of the world’s production, about 80%.

52. Skull and Bones members ELIS
Eli is the nickname for a graduate of Yale University, a term used in honor of the Yale benefactor Elihu Yale.

Skull and Bones is a secret society at Yale University, founded in 1832. The society is well funded, and even owns a 40-acre island in Upstate New York that members and alumni use as a retreat. Noted members of Skull and Bones included William F. Buckley, Jr., President Bush (both father and son) and Senator John Kerry. And President William Howard Taft was the son of one of the society’s founders.

57. “To speak the broken English is an enormous asset” speaker POIROT
Hercule Poirot is Agatha Christie’s renowned detective, a wonderful Belgian who plies his trade from his base in London. Poirot’s most famous case is the “Murder on the Orient Express”.

60. Pontiac muscle car GTO
GTO stands for Gran Turismo Omologato.

66. Stead LIEU
As you might imagine, “in lieu” comes into English from the Old French word “lieu” meaning “place”, which in turn is derived from the Latin “locum”, also meaning “place”. So, “in lieu” means “in place of”.

67. Cartesian connection ERGO
“Ergo” is the Latin word for “hence, therefore”.

The great French philosopher René Descartes made the famous statement in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum” … “I think, therefore I am”. Anything pertaining to Descartes can be described with the adjective “Cartesian”.

68. Surrealism pioneer ERNST
Max Ernst was a painter and sculptor, a pioneer in the Dada movement and Surrealism. Ernst was born near Cologne in Germany in 1891 and he had to fight in WWI, as did most young German men at that time. In his autobiography he writes “Max Ernst died the 1st of August, 1914” a statement about his experiences in the war. In reality, Ernst died in 1976 having lived to the ripe old age of 85.

69. PDQ, in the ICU STAT
The exact etymology of “stat”, used to mean “immediately” in the medical profession, seems to have been lost in the mists of time. It probably comes from the Latin “statim” meaning “to a standstill, immediately”. A blog reader has helpfully suggested that the term may also come from the world of laboratory analysis, where the acronym STAT stands for “short turn around time”.

Pretty darn quick (PDQ) or, as soon as possible (ASAP).

70. Pharmacy unit DRAM
In the obsolete apothecary system of weights, one dram is equivalent to 60 grains, or three scruples.

71. The FDIC may insure them ACCTS
During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Banking Act of 1933. The legislation established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), intended to be a temporary government corporation that provided insurance on deposits made by customers of qualified financial institutions. The first accounts to be covered, in 1934, had an insurance limit of $2,500. Since the financial crisis of 2008, that limit is $250,000.

Down
1. Honshu city 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”.

Honshu is the largest island in Japan, with the name “Honshu” translating as “Main Island”. It is the seventh largest island in the world, and being home to the principal cities in the country, it is the second most populous island on the planet (after Java, in Indonesia).

4. Roleo item LOG
Roleo is the name given to a log rolling competition.

5. Delaware’s Twelve-mile Circle, e.g. ARC
12-Mile Circle isn’t a circle at all but rather a circular arc. 12-Mile Circle is the name given to the arc that forms almost all of the boundary between the states of Delaware and Pennsylvania.

6. 11th Greek letter LAMBDA
The letter L in our modern Latin alphabet is equivalent to the Greek letter lambda.

7. Works of Sappho ODES
Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet born on the Greek island of Lesbos. Sappho was much admired for her work, although very little of it survives today. She was renowned for writing erotic and romantic verse that dealt with the love of women as well as men. It was because of this poetry that the word “lesbian” (someone from Lesbos) is used to describe a gay woman.

9. Fox Movietone piece NEWSREEL
“Movietone News” is a newsreel that ran from 1928 to 1963. The newsreel was branded “Fox Movietone News” here in the US, named for Fox Studios in New York City. The same newsreel service was shown in the UK as “British Movietone News”.

12. Curriculum range, briefly ELHI
“Elhi” is an informal word used to describe anything related to schooling from grades 1 through 12, i.e. elementary through high school.

18. ’70s embargo gp. OPEC
The OPEC cartel (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) was formally established in 1960 and has been headquartered in Vienna since 1965. The US is actually the third largest oil producer in the world (after Russia and Saudi Arabia). One reason America isn’t in OPEC, even though we are a big producer, is that we import a lot more than we export. But you probably knew that already …

The 1973 Oil Crisis started when the Arab members of OPEC imposed an oil embargo. The action was taken as retaliation for the decision by President Nixon to resupply the Israeli military during the Yom Kippur War.

24. Wrestler Flair RIC
The wrestler Ric Flair’s real name is Richard Fliehr. Perhaps following the lead of his compatriot Jesse Ventura, Flair explored the possibility of running for governor of the state of North Carolina. Dearie, dearie me …

25. Minute minute pt. NSEC
A nanosecond is more correctly abbreviated to “ns”, and really is a tiny amount of time … one billionth of a second.

26. Frail sci-fi race ELOI
In the 1895 novel by H. G. Wells called “The Time Machine”, there were two races that the hero encountered in his travels into the future. The Eloi are the “beautiful people” who live on the planet’s surface, while the Morlocks are a race of cannibals living underground who use the Eloi as food.

28. “Elmer Gantry” novelist LEWIS
Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist and playwright. Lewis was the first US writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he won in 1930.

29. Where the iris is UVEA
The uvea is the middle of the three layers that make up the eyeball.

The iris is the colored part of the eye with an aperture in the center that can open or close depending on the level of light hitting the eye.

33. Humerus neighbor ULNA
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”.

The humerus is the long bone in the upper arm.

41. Opera house section LOGE
In most theaters today the loge is the name given to the front rows of a mezzanine level. It can also be the name given to box seating.

49. Fleshy-leaved plant ALOE
Aloe vera has a number of alternate names that are descriptive of its efficacy as a medicine. These include the First Aid plant, Wand of Heaven, Silent Healer and Miracle Plant.

50. The BBC’s “Pinwright’s Progress” is reportedly the first TV one SITCOM
“Pinwright’s Progress” was a BBC sitcom that aired way back, from 1946 to 1947. “Pinwright’s Progress” was the world’s first half-hour sitcom.

51. Crazy way to run AMOK
The phrase “to run amok” (sometimes “to run amuck”) has been around since the 1670s and is derived from the Malay word for “attacking furiously”, “amuk”. The word “amok” was also used as a noun to describe Malay natives who were “frenzied”. Given Malaya’s troubled history, the natives probably had good reason for that frenzy …

54. Band that sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” a cappella at the 2000 World Series ‘N SYNC
‘N Sync was an American boy band from Orlando, Florida that was formed in 1995. The name of the group came from a comment by the mother of band member Justin Timberlake, who said the boys voices sounded “in sync”. But, it’s also true that the letters of the name ‘N Sync are the last letters of the given names of the five band members:

– Justin Timberlake
– Chris Kirkpatrick
– Joey Fatone
– Lance “Lansten” Bass
– JC Chasez

60. Lady of pop GAGA
Lady Gaga is the stage name of singer Stefani Germanotta from New York City. I’ve seen Lady Gaga interviewed on television a few times, and she sure is “unique”. Her music is of course out of my league, but she does know how to put on a show.

65. Dungeons & Dragons foe ORC
Dungeons & Dragons is a complex role-playing game first published in 1974, by Tactical Studies Rules Incorporated (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons was probably the first of the modern role-playing games to be developed, and the most successful. It is still played by lots of people today, including my nerdy son …

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Seat of Florida’s Marion County OCALA
6. Airhead LOON
10. Nonkosher TREF
14. Tijuana address SENOR
15. Cooper’s tool ADZE
16. Incline HILL
17. Start of a quip A DOG COMES WHEN HE
20. Berry of “F Troop” KEN
21. Network with NEA funding PBS
22. Like some pasts SORDID
23. Decked out ADORNED
26. Contemporary of Dashiell ERLE
27. Quip, part 2 IS CALLED, BUT A
32. Power, slangily JUICE
35. Want ad initials EOE
36. First name in fashion YVES
37. Lumber tree ELM
38. Quip, part 3 CAT WILL
42. Lodge member ELK
43. Cocktail party irritant SNOB
45. Agnus __ DEI
46. 80% of them come from South Australia OPALS
48. Quip, part 4 TAKE A MESSAGE
52. Skull and Bones members ELIS
53. Emphatic follow-up I MEAN IT!
57. “To speak the broken English is an enormous asset” speaker POIROT
60. Pontiac muscle car GTO
61. Cautionary road sign SLO
62. End of the quip AND GET BACK TO YOU
66. Stead LIEU
67. Cartesian connection ERGO
68. Surrealism pioneer ERNST
69. PDQ, in the ICU STAT
70. Pharmacy unit DRAM
71. The FDIC may insure them ACCTS

Down
1. Honshu city OSAKA
2. Relinquished CEDED
3. Reprimand ending A NO-NO
4. Roleo item LOG
5. Delaware’s Twelve-mile Circle, e.g. ARC
6. 11th Greek letter LAMBDA
7. Works of Sappho ODES
8. Liq. measures OZS
9. Fox Movietone piece NEWSREEL
10. In that connection THEREBY
11. Outer coating RIND
12. Curriculum range, briefly ELHI
13. Escaped FLED
18. ’70s embargo gp. OPEC
19. Tactic on a mat HOLD
24. Wrestler Flair RIC
25. Minute minute pt. NSEC
26. Frail sci-fi race ELOI
28. “Elmer Gantry” novelist LEWIS
29. Where the iris is UVEA
30. Gambler’s giveaway TELL
31. Tries to learn ASKS
32. Good-natured taunt JEST
33. Humerus neighbor ULNA
34. “There’s nothing wrong with me” I’M OK
39. Checked in ADMITTED
40. Driver’s needs TEES
41. Opera house section LOGE
44. Result of too much suds? BEER GUT
47. Green shade PEA
49. Fleshy-leaved plant ALOE
50. The BBC’s “Pinwright’s Progress” is reportedly the first TV one SITCOM
51. Crazy way to run AMOK
54. Band that sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” a cappella at the 2000 World Series ‘N SYNC
55. “Came up short” I LOST
56. Pushes TOUTS
57. Friends PALS
58. Handling the problem ON IT
59. Author’s inspiration IDEA
60. Lady of pop GAGA
63. Icy comment BRR
64. Leaves in hot water TEA
65. Dungeons & Dragons foe ORC

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