LA Times Crossword Answers 2 Aug 13, Friday

CROSSWORD SETTER: Jack McInturff
THEME: Oh, You! …. today’s themed answers are common phrase with a letter O changed to a letter U in the final word:

20A. Gap that’s easy to bridge? MINIATURE GULF (from “miniature golf’)
28A. Prize for neatest coloring? KINDERGARTEN CUP (from “Kindergarten Cop”)
36A. Kiss while hiking? TRAIL BUSS (from “trail boss”)
49A. Alien adopted by Herman and Lily? THE GREEN MUNSTER (from “The Green Monster”)
57A. “If you don’t go to bed, Santa won’t come,” e.g.? CHRISTMAS RUSE (from “Christmas rose”)

64A. Words to a kidder, and a hint to how this puzzle’s five longest answers were created OH, YOU!

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 15m 03s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
14. Song in the musical “Kismet” FATE
“Kismet” is a musical by Robert Wright and George Forrest that was ultimately based on the 1911 play of the same name by Edward Knoblock. “KIsmet” debuted in 1953, on Broadway.

“Kismet” is a Turkish word, meaning “fate, fortune, one’s lot”.

15. 1973 Stones ballad ANGIE
For my money, “Angie” is the greatest ballad ever performed by the Rolling Stones. Despite rumors to the contrary, “Angie” doesn’t refer to a particular woman. If fact, songwriter Keith Richard says that “Angie” is a pseudonym for heroin, and the lyrics tell of his efforts to get off the drug at a detox facility in Switzerland.

19. Big refs. OEDS
The “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED) contains over 300,000 “main” entries and 59 million words in total. It is said it would take a single person 120 years to type it out in full. The longest entry for one word in the second edition of the OED is the verb “set”. When the third edition was published in 2007, the longest entry for a single word became the verb “put”. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most-quoted author in the OED is William Shakespeare, with his most quoted work being “Hamlet”. The most-quoted female author is George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans).

23. Chemical ending -IDE
In chemistry, when a metal combines with a non-metal, the non-metal is often given the suffix -ide. One example would be iron sulfide..

28. Prize for neatest coloring? KINDERGARTEN CUP (from “Kindergarten Cop”)
“Kindergarten Cop” is a fun 1990 comedy starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in a different role for him. Arnie is a cop, but working undercover as a kindergarten teacher.

33. Icelandic literary collection EDDA
The Poetic Edda and Prose Edda are two ancient works that are the source for much of Norse mythology. Both Eddas were written in the 13th century, in Iceland.

35. Ice cream entrepreneur Joseph EDY
Dreyers’ ice cream sells its products under the name Dreyers in the Western United States, and Edy’s in the Eastern states. The company’s founders were William Dryer and Joseph Edy.

36. Kiss while hiking? TRAIL BUSS (from “trail boss”)
“To buss” is “to kiss”.

41. Diving bird AUK
Auks are penguin-like sea birds that live in colder northern waters including the Arctic. Like penguins, auks are great swimmers, but unlike penguins, auks can fly.

44. __ vodka: ristorante phrase ALLA
Penne alla vodka is a pasta dish with a sauce made of vodka, cream , tomatoes, onions and sausage or bacon.

45. Ally of Roderigo IAGO
Iago is the schemer in Shakespeare’s “Othello”. Iago is a soldier who fought alongside Othello and feels hard done by, missing out on promotion. He hatches a plot designed to discredit his rival Cassio by insinuating that Cassio is having an affair with Desdemona, Othello’s wife. By the end of the play it’s Iago himself who is discredited and Othello (before committing suicide) apologizes to Cassio for having believed Iago’s lies. Heavy stuff …

49. Alien adopted by Herman and Lily? THE GREEN MUNSTER (from “The Green Monster”)
“The Munsters” was a sitcom about a family of harmless monster that ran at the same time as “The Addams Family”, a show with a similar storyline. “The Munsters” was produced by the same team that created “Leave It to Beaver”.

The left field wall in Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team, is the tallest encountered in Major League ballparks. The wall was built so high to prevent viewing of games from outside of the park for free. The height also prevents home runs that would be possible in other ballparks, and so, given its color and reputation, it is called the Green Monster.

54. Big name in beauty 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 …

55. That, in Madrid ESO
Madrid is the largest city in Spain and the capital. Madrid is located very close to the geographical center of the country.

56. Inc. abroad LTD
In Britain and Ireland the most common type of business (my perception anyway) is one which has private shareholders whose liability is limited to the value of their investment. Such a company is known as a private limited company, and has the letters “Ltd” after the name. If the shares are publicly traded, then the company is a public limited company, and has the letters “plc” after the name.

62. Lion portrayer LAHR
Bert Lahr’s most famous role was that of the cowardly lion in “The Wizard of Oz”. Lahr had a long career in burlesque, vaudeville and on Broadway. Remember the catch phrase made famous by the cartoon character Snagglepuss, “Heavens to Murgatroyd!”? Snagglepuss stole that line from a 1944 movie called, “Meet the People” in which it was first uttered by none other than Bert Lahr.

66. It’s not a big case ETUI
An etui is an ornamental case used to hold small items, in particular sewing needles. We imported both the case design and the word “etui” from France. The French also have a modern usage of “etui”, using the term to depict a case for carrying CDs.

67. __ lazuli LAPIS
Lapis lazuli is a blue, semi-precious stone mined mainly in Afghanistan. Lapis Lizuli is Latin for “stone of Lazhward”, referring to the Persian name for the location where the stone was mined. Our word “azure”, a shade of blue, has the same root.

68. Sandy shade ECRU
The shade called ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

70. Plato’s market AGORA
In early Greece the “agora” was a place of assembly. Often the assemblies held there were quite formal, perhaps for the reading of a proclamation. Later in Greek history, things became less formal as the agora evolved into a market place. Our contemporary word “agoraphobia” comes from these agorae, in the sense that an agoraphobe has a fear of open spaces, a fear of “public meeting places”.

Plato was a Greek philosopher and mathematician. He was a student of the equally famous and respected Socrates, and Plato in turn was the teacher and mentor of the celebrated Aristotle.

71. Soccer broadcaster Messing SHEP
Shep Messing played in goal for the US soccer team at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games. Since retiring, Messing has worked as a soccer broadcaster.

Down
4. Filmmaker Riefenstahl LENI
Leni Riefenstahl was a German film director, actress and dancer. She was a noted figure moving in Adolf Hitler’s circle, and her most famous film was a propaganda piece called “Triumph of Will”. “Triumph of the Will” documents the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. We’ve all probably seen many excerpts, shots of huge crowds, Nazis marching with flags, and frenzied speeches from Hitler. Riefenstahl was arrested after the war and detained for a number of years but never found guilty of any crime. She lived a long life, a very long life. She was married for the second time in 2003, at the age of 101 years. She died just a few weeks later, as she had been suffering from cancer.

7. Role for Marty Feldman IGOR
Marty Feldman was a very talented comedy writer and performer from England. He is best known in the US for playing Igor in the Mel Brooks movie “Young Frankenstein”, for which performance Feldman won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. I’ll always remember a famous sketch he did for British television called “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Golfer”. Hilarious stuff …

8. Currency until 2002 LIRE
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 in 2002.

9. Leader after Mao DENG
Deng Xiaoping was the Paramount Leader of the People’s Republic of China from 1978 to 1992. It was Deng Xiaoping who is given the credit for setting policies that led to China’s current economic boom. He moved the country towards a market economy and opened the borders to allow foreign investment.

11. Where some thank-yous are written PREFACE
A “preface” is a book’s introduction that is written by the author himself or herself. A “foreword” is an introduction written by a different person, and precedes the author’s preface.

29. Latin case: Abbr. DAT
The dative case of a noun in Latin is usually spelled differently than other cases. But, the dative case does exist in English too …

30. Guardian of Narnia ASLAN
In the C. S. Lewis books, Aslan is the name of the lion character (as in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). “Aslan” is actually the Turkish word for lion. Anyone who has read the books will recognize the the remarkable similarity between the story of Aslan and the story of Christ, including a sacrifice and resurrection.

31. Co-star of Carroll, Jean, and Sally ROB
Stars of the sitcom :”All in the Family” were:

– Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker
– Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker
– Sally Struthers as Gloria Stivic née Bunker
– Rob Reiner as Michael Stivic

“All in the Family” is an American sitcom, a remake of the incredibly successful BBC show called “Till Death Us Do Part”. Both the UK and US versions of the sitcom were groundbreaking in that the storyline brought into focus topics previously considered unsuitable for a television comedy, including racism, homosexuality, women’s liberation, menopause and impotence. “All in the Family” is one of only three TV shows that has topped the Nielsen ratings for five consecutive seasons (the other two are “The Cosby Show” and “American Idol”).

32. Cross-shaped letter 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.

39. Mer land ILE
In French, an island (Île) can be found in the sea (mer).

43. Whopper topper KETCHUP
If you were in Japan at the end of 2009 and went to Burger King, you might have ordered a Windows 7 Whopper, a promotion for the Windows 7 Operating System. The sandwich was 5 inches in height, and contained seven beef patties!

50. Baseball’s “Iron Horse” GEHRIG
Lou Gehrig was known as a powerhouse. He was a big hitter and just kept on playing. He broke the record for the most consecutive number of games played, and he stills holds the record for the most career grand slams. His durability earned him the nickname “The Iron Horse”. Sadly, he died in 1941 at 37-years-old suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an illness we now call “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”.

51. Obama’s “Dreams From My Father,” e.g. MEMOIR
Barack Obama, Sr. was first married at the age of 18 in his home country of Kenya, and had two children during that marriage. He left his wife and children back in Kenya when he enrolled in the University of Hawaii in 1959, as the school’s first African foreign student. There Obama met Ann Dunham in a Russian language course. The two entered into a romantic relationship and Durham became pregnant. Obama told Durham that he was divorced from his first wife (not true), and the pair were married on Maui in 1961. Six months later Barack Obama II was born, destined to be come the 44th President of the United States. Soon after the birth of their child, Ann Durham moved with their son to Seattle, Washington. The couple were divorced in 1964.

58. City in Kansas IOLA
Iola is a city in Southeast Kansas. The city is named for Iola, wife of J. F. Colburn, one of the owners of the land that was chosen as a site for the town in the late 1850s.

59. Go after, as flies SHAG
To shag (I am reliably informed, never having played a game of baseball in my life!) is to chase and catch a fly ball.

61. Some reddish deer ROES
Roe deer are found mainly in Europe. They would be the deer shown on television and in movies when Robin Hood was out hunting in Sherwood Forest.

63. Beach transp. ATV
All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Track OVAL
5. Put up BUILD
10. Agile SPRY
14. Song in the musical “Kismet” FATE
15. 1973 Stones ballad ANGIE
16. Small music group TRIO
17. Custard concoction FLAN
18. Sticking point THORN
19. Big refs. OEDS
20. Gap that’s easy to bridge? MINIATURE GULF (from “miniature golf’)
23. Chemical ending -IDE
24. Animal enclosure PEN
25. They’re found in mines and minis SEAMS
28. Prize for neatest coloring? KINDERGARTEN CUP (from “Kindergarten Cop”)
33. Icelandic literary collection EDDA
34. Look down on the clouds, perhaps SOAR
35. Ice cream entrepreneur Joseph EDY
36. Kiss while hiking? TRAIL BUSS (from “trail boss”)
41. Diving bird AUK
44. __ vodka: ristorante phrase ALLA
45. Ally of Roderigo IAGO
49. Alien adopted by Herman and Lily? THE GREEN MUNSTER (from “The Green Monster”)
54. Big name in beauty ESTEE
55. That, in Madrid ESO
56. Inc. abroad LTD
57. “If you don’t go to bed, Santa won’t come,” e.g.? CHRISTMAS RUSE (from “Christmas rose”)
62. Lion portrayer LAHR
64. Words to a kidder, and a hint to how this puzzle’s five longest answers were created OH, YOU!
65. “__ off?” ON OR
66. It’s not a big case ETUI
67. __ lazuli LAPIS
68. Sandy shade ECRU
69. Family fare letters TV-PG
70. Plato’s market AGORA
71. Soccer broadcaster Messing SHEP

Down
1. Not meant to be public OFF-MIKE
2. Airport security req. VALID ID
3. Over AT AN END
4. Filmmaker Riefenstahl LENI
5. Cupcakes-to-be BATTER
6. Like curtains to be installed UNHUNG
7. Role for Marty Feldman IGOR
8. Currency until 2002 LIRE
9. Leader after Mao DENG
10. Pinched STOLEN
11. Where some thank-yous are written PREFACE
12. Divested (of) RID
13. Howdies YOS
21. Clod APE
22. False friends USERS
26. Sludge MUD
27. Wire wearer SPY
29. Latin case: Abbr. DAT
30. Guardian of Narnia ASLAN
31. Co-star of Carroll, Jean, and Sally ROB
32. Cross-shaped letter TAU
37. Not as prevalent RARER
38. Draft pick ALE
39. Mer land ILE
40. One of the fam SIS
41. Bolted down ATE
42. Hesitating sounds UHS
43. Whopper topper KETCHUP
46. Unavailable, in a way AT LUNCH
47. Become irritated GET SORE
48. Cook’s “Food’s ready!” ORDER UP!
50. Baseball’s “Iron Horse” GEHRIG
51. Obama’s “Dreams From My Father,” e.g. MEMOIR
52. Olympics chant USA! USA!
53. Terrible twos cries NOS
58. City in Kansas IOLA
59. Go after, as flies SHAG
60. Slip in the pool? TYPO
61. Some reddish deer ROES
62. Rent LET
63. Beach transp. ATV

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