LA Times Crossword Answers 18 Jan 13, Friday

CROSSWORD SETTER: David Poole
THEME: Hamelin, Afterwards … today’s themed answers are well-known phrases with “RAT” removed, as if the PIED PIPER of Hamelin had worked his magic:

17A. Bolshevik film festival fodder? RED MOVIES (from “R-rated movies”)
21A. With 51-Across, Puerto Rico pecan and Cuban coconut custard? PIES OF THE (from “Pirates of the …”)
26A. Auden’s vineyard? THE GRAPES OF WH (from “The Grapes of Wrath”)
46A. Side dish made with russets and Tanqueray? POTATOES AU GIN (from “potatoes au gratin”)
62A. Legendary musician responsible for what’s missing from 17-, 21-, 26- and 46-Across PIED PIPER

COMPLETION TIME: 14m 33s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Socks for Clinton, e.g. PET
Socks was the pet cat belonging to the Clinton family while they lived in the White House. When President Clinton left office, Socks was adopted by Bettie Currie, the President’s secretary. Apparently Socks wasn’t getting on well with Buddy, the Clinton’s pet dog.

4. Mums’ relatives, in a way GLADS
The gladiolus is a perennial flower in the iris family, and is sometimes called the Sword Lily.

Chrysanthemums are perennial flowering plants that are often called “mums”.

9. Weber State University city OGDEN
Ogden, Utah was the first permanent settlement in what is now the state of Utah by people of European descent.

Weber State University is located in Ogden, Utah. The school was founded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and is named for a fur trader called John Henry Weber.

15. Petrol purchase LITRE
Petrol is of course the same thing as gasoline. “Petrol” comes via French from the Latin “petroleum”, itself derived from “petra” meaning “rock” and “oleum” meaning “oil”.

16. __ Laredo, Mexico NUEVO
Laredo is a border city in Texas, situated on the banks of the Rio Grande across the border from Nuevo Laredo in Mexico.

17. Bolshevik film festival fodder? RED MOVIES (from “R-rated movies”)
At the second party congress of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903, a split developed. The faction with the most support was led by Vladimir Lenin. Lenin’s faction was in the majority and so became known as the Bolsheviks, derived from the Russian word for “more” or “majority”.

19. Key of the “Eroica” symphony E-FLAT
Beethoven originally dedicated his Symphony No. 3 to Napoleon Bonaparte. Beethoven admired the principles of the French Revolution and as such respected Bonaparte who was “born” out of the uprising. When Napoleon declared himself Emperor, Beethoven (and much of Europe) saw this as a betrayal to the ideals of the revolution so he changed the name of his new symphony from “Bonaparte” to “Eroica”, meaning “heroic” or “valiant”.

21. With 51-Across, Puerto Rico pecan and Cuban coconut custard? PIES OF THE (from “Pirates of the …”)
51. See 21-Across CARIBBEAN
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” series of films is of course based on the wonderful ride at the Disney theme parks. The first movie in the series is “The Curse of the Black Pearl”, released in 2003. The film is remarkable in many ways, including the fact that it was the first Disney movie to be given a PG-13 rating.

25. Musician’s deg. MFA
Master of Fine Arts (MFA).

26. Auden’s vineyard? THE GRAPES OF WH (from “The Grapes of Wrath”)
John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” is set during the Great Depression. The novel tells the story of the Joad family from Oklahoma, farmers who had to leave their home and head for California due to economic hardship.

The noted poet W. H. Auden was born and raised in England, but eventually became a US citizen. As well as hundreds of poems, Auden also wrote librettos for operas, including Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress”.

33. Dawn deity EOS
In Greek mythology, Eos is 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 is Aurora.

34. Last words EPILOG
Our word “epilog”, meaning an addition at the end of a play or other literary work, ultimately comes from Greek. “Epi-” is a prefix signifying “in addition”, and “logos” is the noun for “a speech”.

35. “__ Peach”: Allman Brothers album EAT A
The Allman Brothers Band has to be one of the most unlucky bands in the business. Soon after the group had its big break with the 1971 album “At Fillmore East”, one of the two Allman brothers, Duane, was killed in a motorcycle accident. One year later, bassist Berry Oakley was killed, also in a motorcycle accident.

40. Montréal moniker NOM
Montréal and Québec are names (noms) of cities, in French.

41. Jewel box item CD-ROM
A CD case is also known as a jewel box, and I am not sure why …

42. Gym ball PROM
A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them just “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

43. Attic window DORMER
A dormer window is a window in a dormer! A dormer is a roofed structure that protrudes from the slope of the main roof.

45. Doctor of music? DRE
Dr. Dre is the stage name of rapper Andre Romelle Young. Dr. Dre is known for his own singing career as well as producing records and starting the careers of others such Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent.

46. Side dish made with russets and Tanqueray? POTATOES AU GIN (from “potatoes au gratin”)
To cook “au gratin” is to prepare something in a shallow dish with a crust of bread or cheese on top. In America we tend to think mainly of potatoes prepared this way, but the technique can be used for many different dishes. Notably, what we call French onion soup is called a “gratinée” in France, an onion soup with some bread and cheese baked on top.

49. Sigma follower TAU
Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, the letter which gave rise to our Roman “T”. Both the letters tau (T) and chi (X) have long been symbolically associated with the cross.

50. Hosp. readout ECG
An EKG measures electrical activity in the heart. Back in my homeland of Ireland, an EKG is known as an ECG (for electrocardiogram). We use the German name in the US, Elektrokardiogramm, giving us EKG. Apparently the abbreviation EKG is preferred as ECG might be confused (if poorly handwritten, I guess) with EEG, the abbreviation for an electroencephalogram.

57. “The Kiss” painter KLIMT
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter who primarily painted the female body, often producing works that were described as erotic. One of Klimt’s most famous paintings was “The Kiss” completed in 1908.

62. Legendary musician responsible for what’s missing from 17-, 21-, 26- and 46-Across PIED PIPER
The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin dates back to medieval times. Recently there have been suggestions that the story is rooted in some truth, that the town of Hamelin did in fact lose many of its children, perhaps to plague. The suggestion is that the tale is an allegory.

65. City on the Penobscot ORONO
The town of Orono is home to the University of Maine, founded in 1862. The college is actually located on an island (Marsh island) lying between the Penobscot and Stillwater rivers. The town of Orono is named after Joseph Orono, a chief of the Penobscot Nation.

67. “Naturalis Historia” author PLINY
Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger were important figures in Ancient Rome. Pliny the Elder was a scientist and historian, the author of “Naturalis Historia”, commonly referred to as “Pliny’s Natural History”. Pliny the Younger was the nephew and adopted son of Pliny the Elder. Pliny the Younger was a noted Roman statesman, orator and writer.

68. Parlement français division SENAT
The French Senate (“Sénat”) meets in the beautiful Luxembourg Palace (“Palais du Luxembourg”) in Paris.

69. “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” author Brown DEE
Dee Brown was a novelist and historian from Alberta, Louisiana. Brown wrote a history called “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” that addressed the oppression of Native Americans in the American West in the late 1800s.

Down
2. Adam’s apple spot EDEN
According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in a garden “in” Eden, with Eden being geographically located by reference to four rivers including the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some scholars hypothesize that Eden was located in Mesopotamia, which encompasses much of modern-day Iraq.

3. Lincoln in-law TODD
Mary Todd moved in the best of the social circles in Springfield, Illinois and there met the successful lawyer, Abraham Lincoln. The path to their marriage wasn’t exactly smooth, as the engagement was broken once but reinstated, with the couple eventually marrying in 1842.

5. Actress Tyler LIV
Actress and model Liv Tyler is the daughter of Steven Tyler, lead singer with Aerosmith, and Bebe Buell, a celebrated model and singer.

7. Cologne crowd? DREI
“Drei” is the German for three, and “three” is a crowd, as the saying goes.

Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany, and is called “Koln” in German.

8. Zaire’s Mobutu __ Seko SESE
Mobutu Sese Seko was the longtime President of Zaire (later to be called the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Mobutu was known to be a very corrupt dictator and it is believed that he embezzled over $5 billion from his country. On a lighter note, Mobutu was the money man behind the famous 1974 boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman known as “The Rumble in the Jungle”. Mobutu was anxious to expand the image of Zaire so he used his nation’s funds to entice the fighters to have a go at each other in his homeland.

9. Unrepeated event, in Essex ONE OFF
Essex is a county in England, referred to as one of the “home counties”.

The home counties are the counties that surround the city of London, outside of London itself. “Home county” is not an official designation but has been in popular use since the 1800s.

11. Upper-bod muscle DELT
The deltoid muscle is actually a group of muscles, the ones that cover the shoulder and create the roundness under the skin. The deltoid is triangular in shape resembling the Greek letter delta, hence the name.

12. 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”.

18. Instrument heard on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bookends” MOOG
Robert Moog invented the Moog Synthesizer in the sixties, an electronic device that he used to produce music. I used to own a few of his albums, including a Moog version of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. What a great performance that was …

22. EPA concern SMOG
“Smog” is of course a portmanteau word formed by melding “smoke” and “fog”. The term was first used to describe the air around London in the early 1900s.

28. Legally prohibit ESTOP
The legal term “estop” means to block or stop by using some legal device. The word “estop” comes from Old French, in which “estopper” means “to stop up” or “to impede”.

29. Côte-d’Or crop PINOT
The Côte-d’Or is a department in the east of France.

The Pinot noir wine grape variety takes its name from the French for “pine” and “black”. The grapes grow in tight clusters shaped like pine cones, and are very dark in color. The Pinot noir grape is most closely associated with Burgundy wines in France, although in recent years the popularity (and price) of California Pinot noir wine has soared after it featured so prominently in the wonderful, wonderful 2004 movie “Sideways”. Grab a bottle of Pinot, and go rent the DVD…

30. Ecuadoran province named for its gold production EL ORO
El Oro is a coastal province in the south of Ecuador. El Oro (meaning “The Gold”) takes its name from the gold production industry. The province is also one of the biggest banana exporters in the world.

31. Its capital is Amiens SOMME
Amiens is a city in the north of France in the region known as Picardy. Amiens lies on the River Somme, and is the capital city of the Somme department.

32. Gauge opening? HARD G
There is a hard G at the start of the word “gauge”.

36. Bagels, shapewise TORI
The bagel was invented in the Polish city of Kraków in the 16th century. Bagels were brought to this country by Jewish immigrants from Poland who mainly established homes in and around New York City.

37. Closing word AMEN
The word “amen” is translated as “so be it”. “Amen” is said to be of Hebrew origin, but it is likely to be also influenced by Aramaic and Arabic.

39. Cyberface EMOTICON
An emoticon is a glyph created using text characters to represent facial features, and usually oriented sideways. The emoticon is designed to indicate emotion or attitude. The classic example is the smiley face 🙂

47. Q neighbor TAB KEY
Like most features on our computer keyboards, the tab key is a hangover from the days of typewriters. When using a typewriter, making entries into a table was very tedious as it involved lots of tapping on the spacebar and backspace key. So, a lever was added to typewriters that allowed the operator to “jump” across the page to positions that could be set by hand. Later this was simplified to a tab key, which could be depressed causing the carriage to jump to the next tab stop in much the same way that the modern tab key works on a computer.

48. Citrus hybrid UGLI
The ugli fruit is a hybrid of an orange and a tangerine, first discovered growing wild in Jamaica where most ugli fruit comes from today.

51. Soviet letters CCCP
The acronym CCCP stands for “Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик”, which translates from Russian as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR.

52. Kazakhstan border sea ARAL
The Aral Sea is a great example of how man can have a devastating effect on his environment. In the early sixties the Aral Sea covered 68,000 square miles of Central Asia. Soviet Union irrigation projects drained the lake to such an extent that today the total area is less than 7,000 square miles, with 90% of the lake now completely dry. Sad …

The Republic of Kazakhstan in Central Asia is the world’s largest landlocked country. Kazakhstan was the last of the former Soviet Republics to declare itself independent from Russia.

53. Pasta __: food brand RONI
Noodle Roni was a derivative product of Rice-A-Roni based on the classic recipe of Noodles Alfredo. Noodle Roni was renamed to Pasta Roni in 1995. Never tried it …

54. Long poem EPOS
Epos is the Greek word for a story or a poem. We have absorbed it into English as “epic”, a long narrative poetic work describing heroic deeds and ventures.

55. Yorkshire river AIRE
The biggest city on the River Aire in Yorkshire is Leeds.

56. Gas on Broadway NEON
The basic design of neon lighting was first demonstrated at the Paris Motor Show in 1910. Such lighting is made up of glass tubes containing a vacuum into which has been introduced a small amount of neon gas. When a voltage is applied between two electrodes inside the tube, the neon gas “glows” and gives off the familiar light.

58. Tech debut of 2010 IPAD
The very exciting iPad isn’t Apple’s first foray into the world of tablet computing. Apple created great buzz by introducing the Newton MessagePad way back in 1993. This innovative machine was fraught with problems and really died a very slow death, finally being withdrawn from the market in 1998.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Socks for Clinton, e.g. PET
4. Mums’ relatives, in a way GLADS
9. Weber State University city OGDEN
14. Trouble ADO
15. Petrol purchase LITRE
16. __ Laredo, Mexico NUEVO
17. Bolshevik film festival fodder? RED MOVIES (from “R-rated movies”)
19. Key of the “Eroica” symphony E-FLAT
20. Grant ENDOW
21. With 51-Across, Puerto Rico pecan and Cuban coconut custard? PIES OF THE (from “Pirates of the …”)
23. Ode preposition O’ER
25. Musician’s deg. MFA
26. Auden’s vineyard? THE GRAPES OF WH (from “The Grapes of Wrath”)
33. Dawn deity EOS
34. Last words EPILOG
35. “__ Peach”: Allman Brothers album EAT A
38. Subdued MUTED
40. Montréal moniker NOM
41. Jewel box item CD-ROM
42. Gym ball PROM
43. Attic window DORMER
45. Doctor of music? DRE
46. Side dish made with russets and Tanqueray? POTATOES AU GIN (from “potatoes au gratin”)
49. Sigma follower TAU
50. Hosp. readout ECG
51. See 21-Across CARIBBEAN
57. “The Kiss” painter KLIMT
61. Lot of baloney CROCK
62. Legendary musician responsible for what’s missing from 17-, 21-, 26- and 46-Across PIED PIPER
64. It’s often stored upside-down CANOE
65. City on the Penobscot ORONO
66. Have a life ARE
67. “Naturalis Historia” author PLINY
68. Parlement français division SENAT
69. “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” author Brown DEE

Down
1. Cut down PARE
2. Adam’s apple spot EDEN
3. Lincoln in-law TODD
4. Looked askance GLOWERED
5. Actress Tyler LIV
6. Left __: rewarded A TIP
7. Cologne crowd? DREI
8. Zaire’s Mobutu __ Seko SESE
9. Unrepeated event, in Essex ONE OFF
10. Roared GUFFAWED
11. Upper-bod muscle DELT
12. Cole Porter’s “Well, Did You __?” EVAH
13. A or E, but not I, O or U NOTE
18. Instrument heard on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bookends” MOOG
22. EPA concern SMOG
24. 45-Across genre RAP
26. Sub TEMP
27. Happy __ HOUR
28. Legally prohibit ESTOP
29. Côte-d’Or crop PINOT
30. Ecuadoran province named for its gold production EL ORO
31. Its capital is Amiens SOMME
32. Gauge opening? HARD G
36. Bagels, shapewise TORI
37. Closing word AMEN
39. Cyberface EMOTICON
41. Nutty CRACKPOT
43. Smear DAUB
44. Denver-to-Wichita dir. ESE
47. Q neighbor TAB KEY
48. Citrus hybrid UGLI
51. Soviet letters CCCP
52. Kazakhstan border sea ARAL
53. Pasta __: food brand RONI
54. Long poem EPOS
55. Yorkshire river AIRE
56. Gas on Broadway NEON
58. Tech debut of 2010 IPAD
59. Just MERE
60. Genealogy chart TREE
63. Trial evidence, at times DNA

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