LA Times Crossword Answers 3 Jun 13, Monday

CROSSWORD SETTER: Michael Dewey
THEME: Circulatory Stuff … each of today’s themed answers ends with a part of the body’s circulatory system:

20A. Siblings, sons, daughters, etc. FLESH AND BLOOD
29A. “Along related lines …” IN THE SAME VEIN
47A. Main thoroughfare CENTRAL ARTERY
56A. Have the song memorized KNOW IT BY HEART

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 06m 57s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
15. Supergirl’s Krypton name KARA
Kara Zor-El is Superman’s cousin, and is also known as Supergirl. Supergirl’s father and Superman’s father were brothers.

16. Munich Mrs. FRAU
In Germany, the lady of the house (haus) is the wife (frau).

Munich is the capital of the German state of Bavaria, and is the third largest city in the country (after Berlin and Hamburg). The city is called “München” in German, a term that derives from the Old German word for “by the monks’ place”, which is a reference to the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city in 1158.

17. “Great taste. Less filling” beers LITES
“Great Taste … Less Filling” is an advertising campaign for Miller Lite beer.

The first light beer was produced by Chicago’s Meister Brau brewery in the sixties. Miller took over Meister Brau, reformulated the light beer using the same process and became the first of the big breweries to come out with a light beer, “Lite Beer from Miller” introduced in 1973. There really wasn’t a serious competitor to Miller Lite until Anheuser-Busch finally came up with a process and a product in 1982 that they called Bud Light.

19. Keister RUMP
Back in the early 1900s a keister was a safe or a strongbox. It has been suggested that this term was then used as slang by pickpockets for the rear trouser pocket in which one might keep a wallet. From this usage, keister appeared as a slang term for the buttocks in the early 1930s.

23. 35mm camera type SLR
SLR stands for “single lens reflex”. Usually cameras with changeable lenses are the SLR type. The main feature of an SLR is that a mirror reflects the image seen through the lens out through the viewfinder, so that the photographer sees exactly what the lens sees. The mirror moves out of the way as the picture is taken, and the image that comes through the lens falls onto unexposed film, or nowadays onto a digital sensor.

Leica is a German optics company, famous for production of lenses and cameras. The 1913 Leica was the first practical camera that could use 35mm film, a size chosen because it was already the standard for film used in motion pictures.

24. Anxious med. condition for TV’s Monk OCD
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed mental disorder, making it about as common as asthma.

“Monk” is a comedy cop show in which the title character is an ex-San Francisco Police Department detective who is recovering from a nervous breakdown.

25. Actor McKellen IAN
Sir Ian McKellen is a marvelous English actor, someone who is comfortable playing anything from Macbeth on stage to Magneto in an “X-Men” movie. On the big screen, McKellen is very famous for playing Gandalf in “The Lord of Rings”. In the UK Sir Ian is noted for being at the forefront of the campaign for equal rights for gay people, a role he has enthusiastically embraced since the eighties.

26. Onetime telecom giant GTE
GTE was a rival to AT&T, the largest of the independent competitors to the Bell System. GTE merged with Bell Atlantic in 2000 to form the company that we know today as Verizon.

33. Cosmetician Lauder ESTEE
Estée Lauder was quite the successful businesswoman, with a reputation as a great salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales volume …

38. Push-up muscle, briefly PEC
“Pecs” is the familiar term for the chest muscle, more correctly known as the pectoralis major muscle.

40. Greek sandwich GYRO
A gyro is a traditional Greek dish, a sandwich made with pita bread containing meat, tomato, onion and tzatziki (a yogurt and cucumber sauce). The meat for gyros is usually roasted on a tall vertical spit and is sliced from the spit as required. The name “gyro” comes from the modern Greek word “gyros” meaning “circle”, a reference to the meat turning as it is grilled in a rotating circular motion.

52. “The Raven” monogram EAP
Edgar Allan Poe lived a life of many firsts. He is considered to be the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He was also the first notable American author to make his living through his writing, something that didn’t really go too well for him as he was always financially strapped. In 1849 he was found on the streets of Baltimore, delirious from either drugs or alcohol. He died a few days later in hospital at 39 years of age.

“The Raven” is a narrative poem by Edgar Allen Poe that tells of a student who has lost the love of his life, Lenore. A raven enters the student’s bedchamber and perches on a bust of Pallas. The raven can talk, to the student’s surprise, but says nothing but the word “nevermore” (“quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore’”). As the student questions all aspects of his life, the raven taunts him with the same comment, “nevermore”. Finally the student decides that his soul is trapped beneath the raven’s shadow and shall be lifted “nevermore” …

53. AQI monitor EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was set up during the Nixon administration and began operation at the end of 1970.

The air quality index (AQI)

63. “Kim” actor Flynn ERROL
Errol Flynn was born 1909 in Tasmania, Australia where he was raised. In his twenties, Flynn lived in the UK where he pursued his acting career. Around the same time he starred in an Australian film “In the Wake of the Bounty” and then appeared in a British film “Murder at Monte Carlo”. It was in the latter film that he was noticed by Warner Brothers who brought him to America. Flynn’s non-American heritage shone through even while he was living the American dream in California. He regularly played cricket, along with his friend David Niven, in the Hollywood Cricket Club.

“Kim” is a 1950 film starring Errol Flynn that is based on the classic novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling.

64. Gung-ho AVID
“Kung ho” is a Chinese expression meaning “work together, cooperate”. The anglicized version “gung ho” was adopted by a Major Evans Carlson as an expression of combined spirit for his 2nd Marine Raider Battalion during WWII. From there the term spread throughout the Marine Corps and back to America where it persists to this day.

65. Old Italian coin LIRA
The word “lira” is used in a number of countries for currency. “Lira” comes from the Latin for “pound” and is derived from a British pound sterling, the value of a Troy pound of silver. For example, the lira (plural “lire”) was the official currency of Italy before the country changed over to the euro.

66. Half a Washington city WALLA
The Walla Walla Valley is a wine-growing region in Washington that extends into the northeast of Oregon. The valley is named after the Walla Walla people who lived in the area.

67. __ de foie gras PATE
Pâté is a rich spreadable paste made up of a mixture of ground meat and fat, to which various vegetables, herbs and spices may be added. The most famous version is pâté de foie gras, made from the fattened livers of geese (“foie gras” means “fat liver” in French).

Down
3. “Great” Russian czar PETER I
Peter the Great (also “Peter I”) was perhaps the most successful of the Romanov tsars, famous for modernizing Russia and expanding the country’s sphere of influence, creating the Russian Empire. He ruled from 1682 until his death in 1725.

4. Summers in Paris ETES
One might spend the summer (été) under the sun (le soleil) in Paris.

5. Toss back jiggers of liquor DO SHOTS
A jigger is a 1.5 ounce shot glass.The term “jigger” was originally used for an illicit distillery in the 1800s.

8. Saudi __ ARABIA
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest Arab country in the Middle East and is the world’s largest oil producer, home to the world’s largest oil reserves. The Saudi dynasty started in central Arabia in 1744 when the secular leader Muhammad ibn Saud joined forces with the Islamic scholar and Imam, Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab. At the time, Saud was a ruler of a town near Riyadh and he was determined to bring “true” Islam to the Arabian peninsula. Since 1744 the fortunes of the Saudi family have risen and fallen, but it is that same family who rules what we know today as Saudi Arabia.

10. Jackson 5 hairdo AFRO
The Jackson 5 singing group was originally made up of brothers Tito, Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael.

22. Most-draftable status ONE-A
The US government maintains information on all males who are potentially subject to military conscription, using what is called the Selective Service System. In the event that a draft was held, men registered would be classified into groups to determine eligibility for service. Class 1-A registrants are those available for unrestricted military service. Other classes are 1-A-O (conscientious objector available for noncombatant service), 4-A (registrant who has completed military service) and 4-D (Minister of religion).

28. Prefix with plasm ENDO-
The endoplasm is the inner part of a cell’s cytoplasm, and the ectoplasm is the outer part.

35. 17th-century year when Henry Hudson entered his bay MDCX
Hudson Bay in northern Canada is the second largest bay in the world, after the Bay of Bengal. Hudson Bay was named by English explorers after Henry Hudson who explored the area in 1610 on his ship “Discovery”. Hudson’s crew mutinied during that voyage and set Hudson and his officers adrift in a small boat. It is presumed that the castaways didn’t survive for very long.

36. Baseball’s Hershiser OREL
Orel Hershiser is big into poker now that he has retired from Major League Baseball. Hershiser lives in Las Vegas and when he isn’t working for ESPN, apparently he is at the poker tables.

37. Literary language of India SANSKRIT
Sanskrit is an Indo-Aryan language and is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India. Sanskrit has a rich tradition and is the language in which many historical and religious texts are written. There aren’t many speakers of the language today although efforts are underway to revive spoken Sanskrit.

39. __ cortex: outermost brain tissue CEREBRAL
The outermost layer of an organ is known as the cortex. The cortical layer that is most familiar to the man on the street (like me!) is that of the brain, the cerebral cortex.

48. Actress Kazan LAINIE
Lainie Kazan is an actress and singer from Brooklyn, New York. One of Kazan’s first acting jobs was working as Barbra Streisand’s understudy in the stage musical “Funny Girl”. She was the understudy for 18 months before she had an opportunity to go on stage when Streisand developed a throat condition. Kazan’s performances were so well received that she quit the show and embarked on a singing career.

54. Worker, briefly PROLE
George Orwell introduced us to the “proles”, the working class folk in his famous novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Collectively, the proles made up the section of society known as the proletariat.

55. Book of maps ATLAS
The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas”.

57. Lymph __ NODE
Lymph is a fluid that exists “alongside” blood in the body, transported through lymph vessels. One of the functions of the system is to pick up bacteria in the body, transporting them to lymph nodes where they are destroyed by lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). Lymph can also carry metastatic cancer cells, which can lodge in lymph nodes making lymph nodes a common site where tumors may be found growing.

58. __ Bora: Afghan region TORA
The famous cave that almost certainly housed Osama Bin Laden for a while was in Tora Bora in eastern Pakistan. Tora Bora is not far (~ 30 mi) from what used to be an even more famous spot, the Khyber Pass. “Tora Bora” is a Pashto name which translates to “black dust”.

59. Part of Q.E.D. ERAT
QED is used at the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument. The QED acronym stands for the Latin “quod erat demonstrandum” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated”.

61. Perón of Argentina EVA
Nowadays, President Juan Perón of Argentina is perhaps less well-known than his second wife, Eva Perón of “Evita” fame. Juan and Eva Perón were overthrown in a military coup in 1955, although Juan Perón was returned to power in 1973 when he served for only nine months before he passed away. Juan was succeeded in office by his third wife, Isabel Perón.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Ran a towel over WIPED
6. Free stuff at a party, in slang SWAG
10. Throws in ADDS
14. Have because of OWE TO
15. Supergirl’s Krypton name KARA
16. Munich Mrs. FRAU
17. “Great taste. Less filling” beers LITES
18. Srs.’ nest eggs IRAS
19. Keister RUMP
20. Siblings, sons, daughters, etc. FLESH AND BLOOD
23. 35mm camera type SLR
24. Anxious med. condition for TV’s Monk OCD
25. Actor McKellen IAN
26. Onetime telecom giant GTE
29. “Along related lines …” IN THE SAME VEIN
33. Cosmetician Lauder ESTEE
34. Like sorted clean socks, hopefully PAIRED
35. More than half MOST
38. Push-up muscle, briefly PEC
40. Greek sandwich GYRO
41. Desk compartment DRAWER
44. Simple question type YES/NO
47. Main thoroughfare CENTRAL ARTERY
50. They’re two sizes above M’s XLS
51. Out __ limb ON A
52. “The Raven” monogram EAP
53. AQI monitor EPA
56. Have the song memorized KNOW IT BY HEART
60. Goose egg ZERO
62. “Are you __ not?”: “Joining us?” IN OR
63. “Kim” actor Flynn ERROL
64. Gung-ho AVID
65. Old Italian coin LIRA
66. Half a Washington city WALLA
67. __ de foie gras PATE
68. Negotiator’s goal DEAL
69. Eyelid woes STYES

Down
1. Gulps (down) greedily WOLFS
2. “Count on me” I WILL
3. “Great” Russian czar PETER I
4. Summers in Paris ETES
5. Toss back jiggers of liquor DO SHOTS
6. Superficial, as beauty SKIN-DEEP
7. Fend (off) WARD
8. Saudi __ ARABIA
9. Streetlight of old GAS LAMP
10. Jackson 5 hairdo AFRO
11. Grunt work DRUDGERY
12. Flood control structure DAM
13. Eat dinner SUP
21. German’s eight ACHT
22. Most-draftable status ONE-A
27. Wedding cake section TIER
28. Prefix with plasm ENDO-
30. Food packaging fig. NET WT
31. “Later, gator” SEE YA
32. Energy VIGOR
35. 17th-century year when Henry Hudson entered his bay MDCX
36. Baseball’s Hershiser OREL
37. Literary language of India SANSKRIT
39. __ cortex: outermost brain tissue CEREBRAL
42. Suffix with sock or switch -EROO
43. Went on a rampage RAN WILD
45. “Freeze, Fido!” STAY!
46. Sibling’s sons NEPHEWS
48. Actress Kazan LAINIE
49. Once every 12 months YEARLY
54. Worker, briefly PROLE
55. Book of maps ATLAS
57. Lymph __ NODE
58. __ Bora: Afghan region TORA
59. Part of Q.E.D. ERAT
60. Reheat quickly ZAP
61. Perón of Argentina EVA

Return to top of page