LA Times Crossword Answers 13 Apr 13, Saturday

CROSSWORD SETTER: John Farmer
THEME: None
COMPLETION TIME: 23m 30s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 2 … STILT (still!!), TOPSY (Lopsy!!)

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Trial run for a far-fetched argument, say LAUGH TEST
A straight face test (also “laugh test”) is a check if an argument or statement can be made sincerely, without succumbing to a compulsion to laugh.

15. Coroner’s conclusion IT’S MURDER
The term “coroner” is derived from the Latin “custos placitorum coronae”, which was once the title of the officer responsible for protecting the property of the royal family (“corona” is Latin for “crown”). Over time, the responsibilities of the office narrowed and changed until by the 17th century, the main task was to determine the cause of death in cases not obviously natural.

16. China from Japan IMARI
Imari is a port city located on the island of Kyushi in Japan. What Europeans know as Imari porcelain actually isn’t made in Imari, but rather in the nearby town of Arita. The name Imari was given to the porcelain because it was the port through which the ceramic ware was shipped. In Japan, the porcelains are called Arita-yaki.

20. Provençal sauce AIOLI
To the purist, especially in Provence in the South of France, the “home” of aioli, aioli is prepared just by grinding garlic with olive oil. However, other ingredients are often added to the mix, particularly egg yolks.

24. Tender cuts LOINS
Loin is the tissue along the top of the ribs.

27. Buddha’s birthplace, per most scholars NEPAL
Gautama Buddha was the sage on whose teachings the Buddhist tradition was founded. It is generally believed that the Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama in Kapilavastu in present-day Nepal, in about 563 BCE.

31. Lake of the Woods prov. ONT
Lake of the Woods is a lake that straddles the US-Canadian border, with parts of the lake lying in Minnesota, Manitoba and Ontario. Considering the lake as a whole (even though much of it is in Canada), Lake of the Woods is the sixth largest freshwater lake in the US, after the five Great Lakes.

32. “Hanging __ Moment”: 2001 Lifehouse hit BY A
Lifehouse is a rock band from Los Angeles. Lifehouse’s first big hit was “Hanging by a Moment” released in 2001. “Hanging by a Moment” had legs, as it stayed in the charts for over a year.

36. Winter Palace rule TSARISM
The Winter Palace is a magnificent building in St. Petersburg in Russia, home to the Russian tsars (and tsarinas). The Winter Palace houses the famous Hermitage Museum. I was lucky enough to visit the Palace and museum some years ago, and I have to say that I have rarely been more impressed by a historical building.

41. Whistling past the graveyard, so to speak IN DENIAL
Someone who is said to be “whistling past the graveyard” is someone who is trying to remain cheerful under difficult circumstances.

43. May honoree MOM
Note the official punctuation in “Mother’s Day”, even though one might think it should be “Mothers’ Day”. President Wilson, and Anna Jarvis who created the tradition, specifically wanted Mother’s Day to honor the mothers within each family and not just “mothers” in general, so they went with the “Mother’s Day” punctuation.

44. __-jongg MAH
“Mahjong” (also mahjongg and mah-jongg) is the Chinese word for “sparrow”. Mahjong is a game that originated in China, and is usually played by four players. There is a myth that the game was developed by the Chinese philosopher, Confucius. The myth also suggests that Confucius was fond of birds, and hence chose the name “sparrow”.

45. Pitch indicator G-CLEF
Clef is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on the stave.

55. Nobel Laureate portrayed in “A Beautiful Mind” NASH
The wonderful 2001 movie “A Beautiful Mind” is of course based on a true story, but it is also a screenplay adapted from a very successful book of the same name written by Sylvia Nasar. Both book and film tell the life story of John Nash (played by Russell Crowe on the big screen). Nash is a mathematician and Nobel Laureate who struggles with paranoid schizophrenia.

56. Cause of a hair-raising experience? ZERO-G
The force of gravity that we all feel is referred to as “one G”. As gravity is a actually an accelerating force, acceleration is measured relative to that force of gravity. So, if we are sitting in a vehicle that accelerates at 3G, then we are experiencing a force that is three times that which we feel from the gravitational pull of the earth. Zero-G is weightlessness that is experienced when in space, outside the influence of the earth’s gravity.

58. Regatta racer SLOOP
Sloops and cutters are sailboats, and each has just one mast. One major difference between the two types of vessel is that the mast on a cutter is set much further aft than the mast on a sloop.

The word “regatta” is Venetian dialect and was originally used to describe boat races among the gondoliers of Venice on the Grand Canal back in the mid-1600s.

61. Philip Glass’s “Waiting for the Barbarians,” e.g. OPERA
“Waiting for the Barbarians” is an opera by American composer Philip Glass that is based on a 1980 novel of the same name by John M. Coetzee.

Philip Glass is by far my favorite composer of classical music who is still working. His Violin Concerto No. 1 is a piece that I listen to at least as often as my favorite works from Beethoven and Mozart. I was lucky enough to attend a very small and intimate piano recital that he gave not so long ago, a very memorable event.

62. Author whose only published novel won a Pulitzer HARPER LEE
Nelle Harper Lee is an author from Monroeville, Alabama. Lee wrote only one novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, and yet that contribution to the world of literature was enough to earn her the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Pulitzer Prize. Harper Lee was a close friend of fellow author Truman Capote who was the inspiration for the character named “Dill” in her novel.

64. Saltpeter NITER
The chemical name for saltpeter (also called “niter”) is potassium nitrate. The exact origin of the name “saltpeter” isn’t clear, but it may have come from the Latin “sal petrae” meaning “stone salt”. The main use for potassium nitrate is as a fertilizer, a source of potassium and nitrogen. As it is a powerful oxidizing agent, it is also used in amateur rocket propellants. Anyone who has ignited one of those “engines” would have noticed the lilac-colored flame, indicating the presence of potassium.

66. Schoolboy jackets ETONS
An Eton jacket is usually black, cut square at the hips and with wide lapels. It is named for the design of jacket that is worn by the younger students at Eton College just outside London.

67. Something to throw when you’re down PITY PARTY
Funnily enough, I first came across the term “pity party” just a couple of hours before doing this puzzle. My wife and I were out for dinner with friends, and it was mentioned in the conversation. Neither I nor the other husband had heard of a pity, but both wives were familiar with the expression. Apparently a pity party is a period spent feeling sorry for oneself, with or without friends to help you “celebrate”. Pity parties seem to involve lots of tissues, ice cream and chocolate.

Down
1. Westernmost capital in Continental Europe LISBON
Lisbon is the capital of Portugal. Lisbon is the westernmost capital city in Europe, and indeed is the westernmost large city on the continent. It is also the oldest city in Western Europe and is hundreds of years older than London, Paris and Rome.

4. TV debut of 1975, for short GMA
“Good Morning America”.

5. Dance in a raffia skirt HULA
Hula is the name of the Polynesian dance. The chant or song that the dance illustrates, that’s known as the mele.

Raffia fibers come from the raffia palm tree. Raffia fibers have many uses, for example as a textile and as a roof covering.

7. Title director in a 1994 biopic ED WOOD
Ed Wood was a screenwriter, director, producer and actor who made a lot of low-budget films during the 1950s. Wood worked a lot with the actor Bela Lugosi and when Lugosi passed away, the popularity of Wood’s film died off with his star. Tim Burton made a biopic about the life and career of Ed Wood that was released in 1994, a movie that was simply called “Ed Wood”.

11. Tarot cards, e.g. OMENS
Tarot cards have been around since the mid-1400s, and for centuries were simply used for entertainment as a game. It has only been since the late 1800s that the cards have been used by fortune tellers to predict the future.

12. Salad component MACARONI
In many cases, the name given to a type of pasta comes from its shape. The name macaroni, however, comes from the type of dough used to make the noodle. Here in the US macaroni is usually elbow-shaped tubes, but it doesn’t have to be.

13. Modern-day male bonding BROMANCE
A “bromance” is the name given these days to a close relationship between two straight males.

23. 1999 Stanley Cup finals competitor SABRE
The Buffalo Sabres joined the NHL in the 1970-71 season. The team took the name “Sabres” following a fan contest.

The Stanley Cup is named for Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor General of Canada from 1888 to 1893. Lord Stanley’s sons became avid fans of ice hockey while in Canada, and so he donated the trophy in 1909, originally as a challenge cup for the country’s best amateur club.

25. Unlikely command to a Chihuahua SIC ‘EM
Sic ’em is an attack order given to a dog, instructing the animal to growl, bark or even bite. The term dates back to the 1830s, with “sic” being a variation of “seek”.

33. Converse rival ASICS
ASICS is a Japanese company that produces athletic gear, including running shoes. The name is an acronym, standing for the Latin phrase “anima sana in corpore sano” which translates to “a healthy soul in a healthy body”.

36. One of The United States’ six TIME ZONE
The US (just the 50 states) is covered by six time zones:

– Eastern
– Central
– Mountain
– Pacific
– Alaska
– Hawaii-Aleutian

The US has three additional time zones, if one includes US territories outside of the 50 states:

– Atlantic (covering Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands)
– Samoa (covering American Samoa)
– Chamorro (covering Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands)

42. “Sweet __”: Oscar-winning song from “Waikiki Wedding” LEILANI
“Waikiki Wedding” is a 1937 musical film starring Bing Crosby and Shirley Ross. The movie is best remembered for the Oscar-winning song “Sweet Leilani” sung by Crosby.

50. Ally of the Brat Pack SHEEDY
Ally Sheedy is best known as a member of the “Brat Pack”, so she appeared in “The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmo’s Fire”. She was in another of my favorite films, “War Games”. To be honest, I haven’t enjoyed the movies in which Sheedy has appeared since those early days.

The Brat Pack moniker is reminiscent of the Rat Pack of the fifties and sixties (Franks Sinatra & co.). To qualify as a “founding” member of the Brat pack the actor had to appear in either “The Breakfast Club” or “St. Elmo’s Fire”, or both. So we have Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.

52. “Either/Or” writer Kierkegaard SOREN
Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher and theologian, and I never really understood anything that he wrote!

54. Stowe slave girl TOPSY
Topsy is a young slave girl in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.

57. Long-nosed fish GARS
The fish known as a gar is very unusual in that it is often found in very brackish water. What is interesting about gar is that their swim bladders are vascularized so that they can actually function as lungs. Many species of gar can actually be seen coming to the surface and taking a gulp of air. This adaptation makes it possible for them to live in conditions highly unsuitable for other fish that rely on their gills to get oxygen out of the water. Indeed, quite interesting …

59. Sound often prohibited? PEEP
I don’t want to hear a peep out of you …

63. Kelly Clarkson record label RCA
Apparently singer Kelly Clarkson was the first winner of “American Idol” …

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Trial run for a far-fetched argument, say LAUGH TEST
10. Developing areas WOMBS
15. Coroner’s conclusion IT’S MURDER
16. China from Japan IMARI
17. Escape STEAL AWAY
18. Pre-heist job RECON
19. Begin to develop BUD
20. Provençal sauce AIOLI
21. As a friend, to François EN AMI
22. Encumbrance ONUS
24. Tender cuts LOINS
26. Familia titles: Abbr. SRAS
27. Buddha’s birthplace, per most scholars NEPAL
29. Slack DOG IT
31. Lake of the Woods prov. ONT
32. “Hanging __ Moment”: 2001 Lifehouse hit BY A
34. “When pigs fly!” NO CHANCE!
36. Winter Palace rule TSARISM
40. Not so cool NERDIER
41. Whistling past the graveyard, so to speak IN DENIAL
43. May honoree MOM
44. __-jongg MAH
45. Pitch indicator G-CLEF
47. BB? BETAS
51. Manages somehow, with “out” EKES
53. Aid for an overhead view STILT
55. Nobel Laureate portrayed in “A Beautiful Mind” NASH
56. Cause of a hair-raising experience? ZERO-G
58. Regatta racer SLOOP
60. Sew up ICE
61. Philip Glass’s “Waiting for the Barbarians,” e.g. OPERA
62. Author whose only published novel won a Pulitzer HARPER LEE
64. Saltpeter NITER
65. “Be right with you!” ONE SECOND!
66. Schoolboy jackets ETONS
67. Something to throw when you’re down PITY PARTY

Down
1. Westernmost capital in Continental Europe LISBON
2. Harmonize ATTUNE
3. Tapped out USED UP
4. TV debut of 1975, for short GMA
5. Dance in a raffia skirt HULA
6. Track TRAIL
7. Title director in a 1994 biopic ED WOOD
8. Aquarium attraction SEA LION
9. Fitting activity TRYING ON
10. Spy wear, maybe WIRE
11. Tarot cards, e.g. OMENS
12. Salad component MACARONI
13. Modern-day male bonding BROMANCE
14. Villainous SINISTER
23. 1999 Stanley Cup finals competitor SABRE
25. Unlikely command to a Chihuahua SIC ‘EM
28. Prone LYING
30. Beat THROB
33. Converse rival ASICS
35. Pitching specialists AD MEN
36. One of The United States’ six TIME ZONE
37. Hostile environment SNAKE PIT
38. Follow ADHERE TO
39. Jukebox setting MALT SHOP
42. “Sweet __”: Oscar-winning song from “Waikiki Wedding” LEILANI
46. Piece of broccoli FLORET
48. Fitting employee TAILOR
49. Rise ASCENT
50. Ally of the Brat Pack SHEEDY
52. “Either/Or” writer Kierkegaard SOREN
54. Stowe slave girl TOPSY
57. Long-nosed fish GARS
59. Sound often prohibited? PEEP
63. Kelly Clarkson record label RCA


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