LA Times Crossword Answers 23 Dec 12, Sunday

CROSSWORD SETTER: Erik Agard
THEME: Secret Agent … each of today’s theme answers spans the word REP:

125A. Agents “hiding” in the answers to starred clues REPS

23A. *Scenic souvenirs PICTU(RE P)OSTCARDS
36A. *Acupuncturist’s target PRESSU(RE P)OINT
59A. *Nonconformist, idiomatically SQUA(RE P)EG
67A. *Cookies sent from home, say CA(RE P)ACKAGE
77A. *Repair shop item SPA(RE P)ART
95A. *Tense subject? FUTU(RE P)ERFECT
115A. *British Sunday meal staple YORKSHI(RE P)UDDING
15D. *Protected area NATU(RE P)RESERVE
51D. *Smokey Bear’s bailiwick FI(RE P)ROTECTION

COMPLETION TIME: 22m 08s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. To be, to Balzac ETRE
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright from the 19th century. Balzac wrote a huge collection of related novels called “La Comédie humaine”.

5. Perfume oil ATTAR
Attar is a fragrant essential oil obtained from flowers, and the term may particularly refer to attar of roses.

15. Classic pop favorite? NEHI
The brand of Nehi cola has a name that sounds like “knee-high”, a measure of a small stature. Back in the mid-1900’s the Chero-Cola company, which owned the brand, went for a slightly different twist on “knee-high” in advertising. The logo for Nehi was an image of a seated woman’s stockinged legs, with her skirt pulled up to her knees, to hint at “knee-high”.

21. It’s blocked by sunblock UV RAY
In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …

26. Slow roller on a baseball diamond? TARP
Originally, tarpaulins were made from canvas covered in tar that rendered the material waterproof. The word “tarpaulin” comes from “tar” and “palling”, with “pall” meaning “heavy cloth covering”.

29. Little green man? GUMBY
“Gumby” is a stop motion clay animation television series that originally ran from the fifties to the late eighties. There were 233 episodes made in total, an impressive number. Gumby was a little green man and his sidekick was Pokey, a little red horse.

33. “Eww, more than I need to know!” TMI!
Too Much Information (TMI)!

45. “Malcolm in the Middle” dad HAL
In the television show “Malcolm in the Middle”, Malcolm’s Dad was played by actor Bryan Cranston.

I’ve never actually sat down and watched the TV comedy “Malcolm in the Middle”. It ran on Fox from 2000 to 2006. Malcolm was played by Frankie Muniz, who gave up acting to pursue a career in motor racing.

47. Egyptian Christians COPTS
The major religion in Egypt in the 4th-6th centuries was Christianity, and the native Egyptian Christians were known as Copts. The major religion in the country now is of course Islam, but Copts make up the largest Christian community in the whole of the Middle East.

49. Prefix with cab PEDI-
A pedicab is also known as a cycle rickshaw.

53. Oscar-winning foreign language film based on a Fugard novel TSOTSI
The 2005 film “Tsotsi” is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by South African writer Athol Fugard. The movie won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2005.

58. Memorable tumbler JILL
The “Jack and Jill” nursery rhyme dates back at least to the 1700s:

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.

65. Aptly named fruits UGLIS
Ugli fruit is an orange/tangerine hybrid and was first discovered growing wild in Jamaica where most ugli fruit comes from today.

66. Shore flier ERNE
The ern (also erne) is also called the white-tailed eagle, and the sea-eagle.

69. “¿Cómo __ usted?” ESTA
“¿Cómo está usted?” is the more formal way of asking, “How are you?” in Spanish.

76. Legal right DROIT
“Droit” is a legal term meaning “right”. It is also the French word for “right”, as in “right and left”.

84. Van Gogh masterpiece IRISES
Van Gogh painted his “Irises” while he was in an asylum in the south of France the year before he committed suicide. The original owner was a French art critic and supporter of Van Gogh who paid 300 francs to purchase the painting. “Irises” was bought for $53.9 million in 1987 making it the most expensive painting sold up to that point. But, the buyer didn’t actually have the necessary funds, so it had to be resold in 1990. It was picked up by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where you can see it today.

90. Wheel with a knife nearby EDAM
Edam cheese takes its name from the Dutch town of Edam in North Holland. The cheese is famous for its coating of red paraffin wax, a layer of protection that helps Edam travel well and prevents spoiling. You might occasionally come across an Edam cheese that is coated in black wax. The black color indicates that the underlying cheese has been aged for a minimum of 17 weeks.

92. __ de Cologne EAU
Back in 1709, an Italian perfume-maker moved to Cologne in Germany. There he invented a new fragrance that he named Eau de Cologne after his newly adopted town. The fragrance is still produced in Cologne, using a secret formulation. However, the terms “Eau de Cologne” and “cologne”, are now used generically.

93. Seventh-inning ritual STRETCH
If there are a lot of extra innings in a baseball game, there can be a fourteenth-inning stretch to supplement the seventh-inning stretch. There might even be a twenty-first-inning stretch …

95. *Tense subject? FUTU(RE P)ERFECT
An example of the future perfect tense is:

“I will have completed” the crossword by then.

100. Space __ CADET
The expression “space cadet” is used to describe someone who is eccentric and disconnected with reality. It may even imply that the person is a user of hallucinogens. The phrase has been around since the sixties, and could be derived from the science fiction TV show “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet”, which aired in the fifties.

103. “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” musical ANNIE
“It’s the Hard-Knock Life” is a song written for the Broadway musical “Annie”. The musical was based on the Harold Gray comic strip “Little Orphan Annie”. There were two subsequent film adaptations, both really quite successful, including one released in 1982 directed by John Huston of all people. “Annie” was Huston’s only ever musical.

104. Singer LuPone PATTI
Patti LuPone won Tonys for playing Eva Peron in “Evita ” and Rose in “Gypsy”.

114. Et __ ALII
Et alii (et al.) is the equivalent of et cetera (etc.), with et cetera being used in place of a list of objects, and et alii used for a list of names. In fact “et al.” can stand for et alii (for a group of males, or males and females), aliae (for a group of women) and et alia (for a group of neuter nouns, or for a group of people where the intent is to retain gender-neutrality).

115. *British Sunday meal staple YORKSHI(RE P)UDDING
Yorkshire Pudding is made from the same batter that is used to make pancakes. The batter is fried in oil, usually fat collected from a roast joint of lamb or beef. Although there’s no reason to believe that the dish was invented in Yorkshire in the north of England, the folks in Yorkshire do tend to eat the pudding differently than in other parts of the country. Usually the pudding is served alongside a roast meat, whereas in Yorkshire it served separately before the main course.

118. O’Brien predecessor and successor LENO
The so called “War for Late Night” of 2010 involved Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno. O’Brien had stayed loyal to NBC on the understanding that he would take over “The Tonight Show” after Jay Leno retired. When Leno’s contract expired in 2009, NBC moved Leno aside, with his agreement, and O’Brien took over. But Leno then hosted a new spot in prime time called “The Jay Leno Show”, and apparently the two shows split the traditional late night audience, much to the annoyance of advertisers. NBC reacted by moving Leno back to the late night slot, and mayhem ensued!

119. Video game plumber MARIO
“Mario Bros.” started out as an arcade game back in 1983, developed by Nintendo. Mario was the more famous of the two brothers as he had already appeared in an earlier arcade game called “Donkey Kong”. Mario was given a brother called Luigi, and the pair have been around ever since. In the game, Mario and Luigi are Italian American plumbers from New York City.

121. Pierre’s South Dakota? ETAT
In French, a state (état) is a political division (division politique).

123. Rhett’s last words A DAMN
In Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind”, when Rhett Butler finally walks out on Scarlett O’Hara he utters the words “My dear, I don’t give a damn”. Most of us are more familiar with the slightly different words spoken by Clark Gable in the film adaption of the story: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

124. Actress MacDowell ANDIE
Andie MacDowell is an American actress who seems to turn up in quite a few British productions set in that part of the world. Most famously she was the love interest in the fabulous film “Four Weddings and a Funeral” starring opposite Hugh Grant. I also enjoyed another of her movies, “Groundhog Day”, which is a fun tale set back here in the US.

Down
1. “House” actor EPPS
Omar Epps is the actor who played Eric Foreman on the excellent television series “House”. Prior to playing Dr. Foreman, Epps had a recurring role playing Dr. Dennis Grant on “ER”. And, in another link to the world of medicine, Epps was born in Savannah, Georgia to single mom, Dr. Bonnie Epps.

3. Puerto __ RICO
Puerto Rico is located in the northeastern Caribbean (in the Atlantic Ocean), east of the Dominican Republic. The name “Puerto Rico” is Spanish for “rich port”. The locals often call their island Borinquen, the Spanish form of “Boriken”, the original name used by the natives.

5. Earth Day mo. APR
Earth Day was founded in the US, an event introduced by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Earth Day was designed to increase awareness and appreciation of our planet’s natural environment. The original Earth Day was on April 22nd, 1970. Decades later, the day is observed in over 175 countries.

6. Afternoon ora TRE
Three (tre) is an afternoon hour (ora), in Italian.

11. Cole Porter’s “Well, Did You __?” EVAH
“Well, Did You Evah!” is a song from the 1939 Cole Porter musical “DuBarry Was a Lady”. A more famous rendition of the song was by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra in the 1956 movie “High Society”.

14. Part of MS-DOS: Abbr. SYS
MS-DOS was the main operating system used by IBM-compatible PCs in the eighties and for much of the nineties.

17. Rosemary, e.g. HERB
The name of the herb called rosemary comes from the Latin “ros marinus” which means “dew of the sea”. The idea is that rosemary can in fact grow in some locations with only the moisture that is carried by a sea breeze.

25. Author Hoag TAMI
Tami Hoag is a novelist best known for writing romances and thrillers. She is a prolific writer and once had five consecutive titles on the New York Times bestsellers list, all in a 20-month period.

31. Whines PULES
“To pule” is to whine or whimper. “Pule” is derived from the French word “piauler” which translates as “to cheep, chirp”.

32. Oldest of the gods, in Plato’s “Symposium” EROS
The Greek philosopher Plato wrote a philosophical treatise on the nature of love called “Symposium”. “Symposium” is the source of the contemporary term “Platonic love”.

35. Cal. pages MOS
In many calendars, each month has its own page.

37. Takeover engineer RAIDER
The business strategy known as “corporate raiding” really is pretty ruthless and shortsighted (excuse my being judgmental). The idea is to buy a large interest in a corporation, sometimes “stealthily”, by buying up a significant number of voting shares. Then the raider uses the power of the voting rights to convince other voters to change the way the company is run, purely to increase the share price in the relatively short term. The changes often involve replacement of the management team, downsizing and even liquidation of the company, all for short term personal gain.

38. Composer of the “Beetlejuice” score ELFMAN
Danny Elfman is a singer and songwriter from Los Angeles. Elfman is well known for compositions used for television and films. For example, he wrote the themes for “The Simpsons” and “Desperate Housewives”.

43. Garfield’s pal ODIE
Odie is Garfield’s best friend and is a slobbery beagle, a character in Jim Davis’s comic strip.

48. Agreeably sharp-tasting PIQUANT
Something that is “piquant” is pleasantly sharp in taste and zesty. “Piquant” is the French word for “prickly”.

51. *Smokey Bear’s bailiwick FI(RE P)ROTECTION
Smokey Bear is the mascot of the US Forest Service. Smokey first appeared in 1944, in an advertising campaign directed towards preventing forest fires.

52. NYPD ranks LTS
The New York Police Department (NYPD) is the largest municipal police force in the country. The department’s roots go back as far at 1625 when there was an eight-man night watch in the days when New York was still known as New Amsterdam. Several disparate forces with policing responsibility were amalgamated in 1844 to form the New York City Police Department, signalling the end of the night watch force that had existed for over 200 years.

56. Soft & __: Dial product DRI
Soft & Dri is an antiperspirant.

58. MacGyver, so to speak JURY RIG
“To MacGyver” something is to jury rig it. The term is a play on the television show “MacGyver” in which the hero was always getting out of a tight spot by jury rigging something.

60. Trendy fleece-lined boots UGGS
Uggs are sheepskin boots that originated in Australia and New Zealand. Uggs have sheepskin fleece on the inside for comfort and insulation, with a tanned leather surface on the outside for durability. Ugg is a generic term down under, although it’s a brand name here in the US.

67. Target on the green CUP
Golfers try to sink golf balls in cups in the center of greens.

71. “Fresh entertainment” mint TIC TAC
Tic Tacs aren’t American candy (as I always mistakenly believed). Tic Tacs are made by the Italian company Ferrero, and were introduced in 1969.

76. Abbey title DOM
The word “Dom” is used in the Roman Catholic Church as a title for monks.

79. Feast of Esther month ADAR
Adar is a month in the Hebrew calendar.

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

86. Cereal box title CAP’N
The first Cap’n Crunch commercials aired in 1963, at the time the product line was launched. The Cap’n’s full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch, would you believe?. Crunch’s voice was provided for many years by Daws Butler, the same voice actor who gave us Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound.

88. HDTV feature, often LCD
Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) are the screens that are found in most laptops today, and in flat panel computer screens and some televisions. LCD monitors basically replaced Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) screens, the old television technology.

In the digital world, resolution of a display, television, image etc. is defined by the number of pixels that can be displayed in a standard area (say a square inch). The emphasis today is on producing larger area displays/televisions, i.e increasing the number of pixels simply by increasing the size of the screen. In the past couple of decades the emphasis was on adding more pixels within the same screen size to increase resolution. This would just be wasted effort these days as further increases in resolution cannot be perceived by the eye. Now that TVs are capable of displaying such high resolutions, broadcasters are responding by producing a video signal of higher resolution that they call high-definition television (HDTV).

89. Pulitzer-winning Cormac McCarthy novel THE ROAD
“The Road” is a Pulitzer winning novel by Cormac McCarthy that tells of a man and his son, trekking across a grim landscape after most life has been destroyed on Earth by some apocalyptic event. In the movie adaptation of the book, Viggo Mortensen has the starring role of “the man” (we never learn his name).

91. Like a McJob DEAD-END
“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.

94. Mai __ TAI
The Mai Tai cocktail is strongly associated with the Polynesian islands, but it was supposedly invented in 1944 in Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. One recipe is 6 parts white rum, 3 parts orange curaçao, 3 parts Orgeat syrup, 1 part rock candy syrup, 2 parts fresh lime juice, all mixed with ice and then a float added of 6 parts dark rum.

96. Wednesday’s mom, to Gomez TISH
Gomez and Morticia (“Tish”) Addams were the parents in “The Addams Family”, a creation of the cartoonist Charles Addams. In the sixties television show, Gomez was played by John Astin and Morticia was played by Carolyn Jones.

97. Last syllable ULTIMA
In the world of linguistics, the last syllable in a word is called the ultima. The second last syllable is known as the penult.

101. Caesar’s land TERRA
“Terra” is the Latin for “land, ground”.

104. __ Alto PALO
The city of Palo Alto, California takes its name from a specific redwood tree called El Palo Alto (Spanish for “the tall stick”) that is located within the bounds of the city. The tree is 110 feet tall and over a thousand years old.

105. Michael’s “Family Ties” role ALEX
Alex P. Keaton is a brilliant character in the sitcom “Family Ties” that ran from 1982-89. Alex was played, very ably, by a young Michael J. Fox. The character is a very vocal Young Republican, which might explain why President Reagan called “Family Ties” his favorite television show.

106. Pea piercer TINE
That would be one of the tines (points) on a fork.

109. Leprechaun’s turf ERIN
“Éire”, is the Irish word for “Ireland”. Erin is an anglicized version of “Éire”, actually corresponding to “Éirinn”, the dative case of “Éire”.

A leprechaun is a mischievous fairy in Irish folklore. Traditionally, leprechauns spend their days making shoes and hide all their money in a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Our word “leprechaun” comes from the Irish name for such a sprite, “leipreachán”.

112. Sack opener? KNAP
“Knapsack” is a Low German word for a bag with straps designed to be carried on the back. The word “knapsack” probably comes from the German verb “knappen” meaning “to eat”.

115. Soprano Sumac YMA
Yma Sumac was a Peruvian soprano. Sumac had a notable vocal range of five octaves.

116. I.M. with plans PEI
I. M. Pei (full name: Ieoh Ming Pei) is an exceptional American architect, born in China. Of Pei’s many wonderful works, my favorite is the renovation of the Louvre in Paris, especially the Glass Pyramid in the courtyard.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. To be, to Balzac ETRE
5. Perfume oil ATTAR
10. “It __ to me …” SEEMS
15. Classic pop favorite? NEHI
19. Number on le menu PRIX
20. “Next week on …” ad PROMO
21. It’s blocked by sunblock UV RAY
22. Gives the sack AXES
23. *Scenic souvenirs PICTU(RE P)OSTCARDS
26. Slow roller on a baseball diamond? TARP
27. Cuddle, in a way SPOON
28. Delivered a sermon PREACHED
29. Little green man? GUMBY
30. Place for a pin LAPEL
33. “Eww, more than I need to know!” TMI!
34. Take exception DEMUR
36. *Acupuncturist’s target PRESSU(RE P)OINT
41. One way or another SOMEHOW
45. “Malcolm in the Middle” dad HAL
46. Get rid of LOSE
47. Egyptian Christians COPTS
49. Prefix with cab PEDI-
50. Flips (through) RIFFLES
53. Oscar-winning foreign language film based on a Fugard novel TSOTSI
56. Sap DRAIN
57. Fesses up to ADMITS
58. Memorable tumbler JILL
59. *Nonconformist, idiomatically SQUA(RE P)EG
62. Browns quickly SEARS
63. To-do list items DUTIES
65. Aptly named fruits UGLIS
66. Shore flier ERNE
67. *Cookies sent from home, say CA(RE P)ACKAGE
69. “¿Cómo __ usted?” ESTA
73. Apt to mope POUTY
75. Sofa cushion concerns STAINS
76. Legal right DROIT
77. *Repair shop item SPA(RE P)ART
81. Old-style “once” ERST
82. One just starting NOVICE
83. Intense passion ARDOR
84. Van Gogh masterpiece IRISES
86. Totals COMES TO
87. Fall guy GOAT
88. Three-star mil. officer LT GEN
90. Wheel with a knife nearby EDAM
92. __ de Cologne EAU
93. Seventh-inning ritual STRETCH
95. *Tense subject? FUTU(RE P)ERFECT
100. Space __ CADET
102. Zip NIL
103. “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” musical ANNIE
104. Singer LuPone PATTI
107. Didn’t go along RESISTED
110. Guitar parts NECKS
114. Et __ ALII
115. *British Sunday meal staple YORKSHI(RE P)UDDING
118. O’Brien predecessor and successor LENO
119. Video game plumber MARIO
120. Looks for a vein MINES
121. Pierre’s South Dakota? ETAT
122. Eight-legged team OXEN
123. Rhett’s last words A DAMN
124. Actress MacDowell ANDIE
125. Agents “hiding” in the answers to starred clues REPS

Down
1. “House” actor EPPS
2. Voyage TRIP
3. Puerto __ RICO
4. Lauds EXTOLS
5. Earth Day mo. APR
6. Afternoon ora TRE
7. Brings down TOPPLES
8. Love of Latin AMOR
9. Faced head-on, as a challenge ROSE TO
10. To the point SUCCINCT
11. Cole Porter’s “Well, Did You __?” EVAH
12. Put one’s foot in it ERRED
13. Most miffed MADDEST
14. Part of MS-DOS: Abbr. SYS
15. *Protected area NATU(RE P)RESERVE
16. Teacher’s handout EXAM
17. Rosemary, e.g. HERB
18. “__ with my little eye …” I SPY
24. Señor’s “some” UNAS
25. Author Hoag TAMI
29. Mess (up) GUM
31. Whines PULES
32. Oldest of the gods, in Plato’s “Symposium” EROS
35. Cal. pages MOS
36. Put into words PHRASE
37. Takeover engineer RAIDER
38. Composer of the “Beetlejuice” score ELFMAN
39. Diminutive PETITE
40. Chuck TOSS
42. Rattletrap HEAP
43. Garfield’s pal ODIE
44. Building addition WING
48. Agreeably sharp-tasting PIQUANT
51. *Smokey Bear’s bailiwick FI(RE P)ROTECTION
52. NYPD ranks LTS
54. Typos and such SLIPS
55. Fatty-acid esters OLEATES
56. Soft & __: Dial product DRI
58. MacGyver, so to speak JURY RIG
60. Trendy fleece-lined boots UGGS
61. Malt beverage ALE
63. It’s often raw DATA
64. Goosebump raiser SCARE
67. Target on the green CUP
68. Mouth KISSER
70. “Evidently” SO I SEE
71. “Fresh entertainment” mint TIC TAC
72. Eschewed cooking ATE OUT
74. On top of, to poets O’ER
76. Abbey title DOM
77. Yields to gravity SAGS
78. Bapt. or Meth. PROT
79. Feast of Esther month ADAR
80. Nonkosher TREF
82. Certain club restriction NO MEN
85. Together IN UNISON
86. Cereal box title CAP’N
88. HDTV feature, often LCD
89. Pulitzer-winning Cormac McCarthy novel THE ROAD
91. Like a McJob DEAD-END
94. Mai __ TAI
96. Wednesday’s mom, to Gomez TISH
97. Last syllable ULTIMA
98. Fruit discard RIND
99. Thing out on a limb FEEDER
101. Caesar’s land TERRA
104. __ Alto PALO
105. Michael’s “Family Ties” role ALEX
106. Pea piercer TINE
108. Milk choice SKIM
109. Leprechaun’s turf ERIN
111. Mention CITE
112. Sack opener? KNAP
113. Boot camp NCOs SGTS
115. Soprano Sumac YMA
116. I.M. with plans PEI
117. Employ USE

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