LA Times Crossword Answers 13 Sep 13, Friday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
13. Vidal’s Breckinridge MYRA
Even today, Gore Vidal’s 1968 novel “Myra Breckinridge” is considered controversial. I haven’t read it, but I understand it addresses transsexuality and other sexual practices usually considered to be outside the norm. There was a movie version of the novel made in 1970, with Raquel Welch in the title role.

Gore Vidal was an author and political activist from West Point, New York. Vidal’s most celebrated novel is probably “Myra Breckinridge”. His most controversial work has to be “The City and the Pillar” from 1948, which is cited as one of the first major novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality.

15. Messenger __ RNA
Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by what is called transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA.

20. Great Lakes’ __ Canals SOO
In the summer of 2010 I spent a very interesting afternoon watching ships make their way through the Soo Locks and Soo Canal between Lake Superior and the lower Great lakes. The name “Soo” comes from the US and Canadian cities on either side of the locks, both called Sault Ste. Marie.

21. Cold Stone Creamery buy CONE
Cold Stone Creamery is a chain of ice cream parlors based in Scottsdale, Arizona. The chain takes its name from the frozen granite stone on which servers mix in “toppings” or other flavors of ice cream.

25. Fluffy toy SHIH TZU
The Shih Tzu is one of the oldest breeds of dog, a breed that originated in China. Shih Tzus have long hairy coats but they don’t shed.

28. Turkic flatbread NAN
Naan (also “nan”) bread is very popular in Indian restaurants, as well as in other West, Central and South Asian cuisines. Indian Naan is traditionally baked in a clay oven known as a tandoor.

30. Name on 2008 and 2012 campaign posters BIDEN
Vice President Joe Biden was a US Senator representing the state of Delaware from 1973 until he joined the Obama administration. While he was a senator, Vice President Biden commuted to Washington from Wilmington, Delaware almost every working day. He was such an active customer and supporter of Amtrak that the Wilmington Station was renamed as the Joseph R. Biden Railroad Station in 2011. Biden has made over 7,000 trips from that station, and the Amtrak crews were known to even hold the last train for a few minutes so that he could catch it. Biden earned himself the nickname “Amtrak Joe”.

33. Thurman of “Gattaca” UMA
Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter “Uma” as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name “Dbuma”.

“Gattaca” is a science fiction movie starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman that was released in 1997. Set in the not-too-distant future, the film describes a society in which potential children are pre-selected so that they inherit the most desirable traits from their parents. The title “Gattaca” is the space agency featured in the storyline. I haven’t seen this movie, but it’s on my “must see” list …

40. “__ on a Grecian Urn” ODE
The poet John Keats is famous for writing a whole series of beautiful odes. The most renowned are the so-called “1819 Odes”, a collection from the year 1819 that includes famous poems such as “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode to Psyche”.

41. Start of a child’s rhyme EENIE

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch the tiger/monkey/baby by the toe.
If it hollers/screams let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, you are it!

42. The “kid” in “Here’s looking at you, kid” ILSA
Ilsa Lund was of course played by Ingrid Bergman in the 1942 movie “Casablanca”. I love the words of one critic describing the chemistry between Bogart and Bergman in this film: “she paints his face with her eyes”. Wow …

44. “Serious Moonlight” actress MEG RYAN
Meg Ryan is the stage name of the actress Margaret Mary Hyra. Ryan’s big break came with the excellent 1989 movie “When Harry Met Sally” from which she went on to star in some of the greatest romantic comedies ever made.

“Serious Moonlight” is a black comedy starring Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton that was released in 2009. Ryan and Hutton play a married couple, with the husband about to leave the marriage for another woman. Ryan’s character stops her husband from leaving by binding him to a chair and hilarity ensues, or so I am told …

47. “Legs” ZZ TOP CLASSIC
In the blues rock band ZZ Top, the hairy guitar players are Billy F. Gibbons and Dusty Hill. The relatively clean-shaven drummer is … wait for it … Frank Beard …

52. Frontier lawman EARP
Wyatt Earp is famous as one of the participants in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Earp was a city policeman in Wichita, Kansas and also in Dodge City, Kansas. Earp was also deputy sheriff in Tombstone, Arizona where the O.K. Corral gunfight took place. Years later, Earp joined the Alaska Gold Rush and with a partner built and operated the Dexter Saloon in Nome.

62. Rodeos, e.g. ISUZUS
Isuzu is a Japanese auto manufacturer, very successful in the medium and heavy truck market in particular. You’ll be seeing fewer and fewer Isuzu passenger cars on American roads though, as the company exited the US passenger car market in 2008.

The Rodeo is a compact SUV that was produced by Isuzu for the North American market. At the same time, the Isuzu Rodeo name was used on compact pickup trucks sold in Japan.

65. Vail alternative ASPEN
Aspen, Colorado used to be known as Ute City, with the name change taking place in 1880. Like many communities in the area, Aspen was a mining town, and in 1891 and 1892 it was at the center of the highest production of silver in the US. Nowadays of course, it’s all about skiing and movie stars.

The Vail Ski Resort in Colorado is the largest single-mountain ski resort in the whole country. The resort was opened in 1962, basically in the middle of nowhere. It was given the name Vail after Vail Pass which runs by the mountain (now also called Vail Mountain). The town of Vail, Colorado was established four years later in 1966, and now has a population of about 5,000.

Down
1. Canyon or Sierra GMC
GMC is a division of General Motors (GM) established in 1901 that started out as “GMC Truck”.

2. Harp relative LYRE
The lyre is a stringed instrument most closely associated with Ancient Greece, and with the gods Hermes and Apollo in particular. According to myth, Hermes slaughtered a cow from a sacred herd belonging to Apollo and offered it to the gods but kept the entrails. Hermes used the entrails to create the first lyre. Apollo liked the sound from the lyre and agreed to accept it as a trade for his herd of cattle.

3. Where the Tigris meets the Euphrates IRAQ
Mesopotamia was the land that lay between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, that flow through modern-day Iraq. The name “Mesopotamia” means “between the rivers”.

4. Russian head scarf BABUSHKA
As well as being the name of a type of headscarf, in Russia a babushka is a grandmother or nana. Babushka is a diminutive of “baba” meaning “old woman”.

5. Only Canadian MLB team TOR
The Toronto Blue Jays baseball franchise was founded in 1977. The Blue Jays are the only team based outside the US to have won a World Series, doing so in 1992 and 1993. And since the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, the Blue Jays are the only Major League Baseball team now headquartered outside of the US.

6. Martini’s partner ROSSI
The company that is today known as Martini & Rossi was started in the mid-1800s in Italy, by Alessandro Martini and Luigi Rossi (and a third partner who sold out years later). From day one it was focused on bottling the fortified wine known as vermouth. Nowadays, the company is also famous for its sparkling wines, and its sponsorship of Grand Prix racing teams. And yes, the famous cocktail is probably named for Mr. Martini.

8. Cosmetics counter array COLOGNES
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.

9. Flattens KOS
Knocks out (KOs)

12. Yuengling offering LAGER
Yuengling was established way back in 1829 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania and now is the oldest operating brewing company in the US. The brewery was founded by David Gottlob Jüngling, a German immigrant. Jüngling anglicized his family name to “Yuengling”.

14. Utah’s state gem TOPAZ
Topaz is a semiprecious stone made from silicate containing aluminum and fluorine. Topaz is the state gemstone of Utah, and the rare blue topaz is the state gemstone of Texas.

25. A.L. West player, informally ‘STRO
The Houston baseball team changed its name to the Astros from the Colt .45s in 1965 when they started playing in the Astrodome. The Astrodome was so called in recognition of the city’s long association with the US space program.

31. Here, in Le Havre ICI
Le Havre is a city on the mouth of the river Seine on the northwest coast of France. The city’s name translates as “the haven”.

34. Rise in the West MESA
“Mesa” is the Spanish for “table” and is of course is how we get the term “mesa” that describes a geographic feature. “What’s the difference between a butte and a mesa?” I hear you cry! Both are hills with flat tops, but a mesa has a top that is wider than it is tall. A butte is a much narrower formation, taller than it is wide.

38. 1864 Geneva Convention creation RED CROSS
Back in 1859, a Swiss businessman called Henri Dunant went to meet French emperor Napoleon III, to discuss making it easier to conduct commerce in French-occupied Algeria. The Emperor was billeted at Solferino, where France and Austria were engaged in a major battle. In one day, Dunant witnessed 40,000 soldiers die in battle and countless wounded suffering on the battlefield without any organized medical care. Dunant abandoned his business agenda and instead spent a week caring for the sick and wounded. Within a few years he had founded the precursor to the Red Cross, and in 1901 he was awarded the first ever Nobel Peace Prize.

The First Geneva Convention is one of four treaties aimed at protecting the victims of armed conflict. The first of these treaties was signed in 1864 by the major European powers at the urging of relief activist Henri Dunant. Dunant also established the Red Cross in 1863, an organization that is specifically called out in First Geneva Convention as an agency that is allowed to provide protection and relief for wounded and sick soldiers. The first treaty was significantly updated and expanded in 1906, 1929 and 1949.

39. Blimps, e.g. AIRCRAFT
There is an important difference between a “blimp” (like “The Goodyear Blimp”) and an airship (like a Zeppelin). An airship is a rigid structure with an internal framework that helps maintain the shape of the airbag, whereas a blimp uses the pressure of the helium gas inside the airbag to give it shape. Also, blimps are usually heavier than air and so will sink slowly to the ground should the engines lose power. They maintain their lift with forward motion and by raising the nose slightly.

43. “Alley __” OOP
French people, and circus acrobats in particular, use the phrase “allez hop!” as words of encouragement, sort of like our “let’s go!”. The phrase was anglicized to “alley oop”.

45. They’re common in Mississippi ESSES
There are four letters S (esses) in the word “Mississippi”.

46. Reagan’s role in “Knute Rockne, All American” GIPP
George Gipp was Notre Dame’s first All-American football player. Just two weeks after getting the award, Gipp (aka “The Gipper”) developed pneumonia and died. Famously, on his deathbed he told the Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne to “win just one for the Gipper”. Ronald Reagan used that same line a lot in his political campaigns, as the actor-turned-politician played the Gipper in the movie “Knute Rockne, All American”.

47. “Save Me the Waltz” author Fitzgerald ZELDA
Zelda Fitzgerald, the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, was a novelist in her own right. Zelda’s one and only novel is “Save Me the Waltz”, a semi-autobiographical account of her life and marriage.

48. 3-D graph line Z-AXIS
The dimension of an object is defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify each point in the object. Therefore a line is one-dimensional, as you only need an x-coordinate to specify a particular point on the line. A plane is two-dimensional, as you need both an x-coordinate and a y-coordinate to locate a point on the plane. The inside of a solid object is then three-dimensional, needing an x-, y- and z-coordinate to specify a point, say within a cube.

50. Many a fast-break result LAYUP
In basketball, a layup is a one-handed shot attempt made by leaping up from below the basket and “laying” the ball into the basket by bouncing it off the backboard.

55. Buffalo’s lake ERIE
Buffalo is the second most-populous city in the state of New York. The city takes its name from Buffalo Creek that runs through the metropolis (although the waterway is called Buffalo River within the city). The source of the name Buffalo Creek is the subject of much speculation, but one thing is clear, there were never any bison in the area.

56. Sicilian tourist attraction ETNA
Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy. Mt Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Smooth to a fault GLIB
5. Song on a CD TRACK
10. Have chills, perhaps AIL
13. Vidal’s Breckinridge MYRA
14. Oh so very TOO TOO
15. Messenger __ RNA
16. Legs CRAB MORSELS
18. Scrap RAG
19. Provide with necessities EQUIP
20. Great Lakes’ __ Canals SOO
21. Cold Stone Creamery buy CONE
22. Legs STAYING POWER
25. Fluffy toy SHIH TZU
28. Turkic flatbread NAN
29. Ivory poacher’s prize TUSK
30. Name on 2008 and 2012 campaign posters BIDEN
33. Thurman of “Gattaca” UMA
36. Legs RELAY RACE STAGES
40. “__ on a Grecian Urn” ODE
41. Start of a child’s rhyme EENIE
42. The “kid” in “Here’s looking at you, kid” ILSA
43. Done to death OLD
44. “Serious Moonlight” actress MEG RYAN
47. “Legs” ZZ TOP CLASSIC
52. Frontier lawman EARP
53. Strike with force RAM
54. Expensive outing, probably SPREE
57. CCCV ÷ V LXI
58. Legs VOYAGE PARTS
61. Veggies go-with, perhaps DIP
62. Rodeos, e.g. ISUZUS
63. “Works for me” FINE
64. Biblical mount ASS
65. Vail alternative ASPEN
66. Dairy farmer’s fistful TEAT

Down
1. Canyon or Sierra GMC
2. Harp relative LYRE
3. Where the Tigris meets the Euphrates IRAQ
4. Russian head scarf BABUSHKA
5. Only Canadian MLB team TOR
6. Martini’s partner ROSSI
7. Used for dinner ATE ON
8. Cosmetics counter array COLOGNES
9. Flattens KOS
10. Turn lane signal ARROW
11. Fatuous INANE
12. Yuengling offering LAGER
14. Utah’s state gem TOPAZ
17. Kitchen protector MITT
21. Cell user CON
23. Kraft coffee brand YUBAN
24. Gasp PANT
25. A.L. West player, informally ‘STRO
26. Shaded HUED
27. Vacation site ISLE
31. Here, in Le Havre ICI
32. Regards DEEMS
33. Hardly fair? UGLY
34. Rise in the West MESA
35. Wise-owl link AS AN
37. [You stepped on my paw!] YELP!
38. 1864 Geneva Convention creation RED CROSS
39. Blimps, e.g. AIRCRAFT
43. “Alley __” OOP
45. They’re common in Mississippi ESSES
46. Reagan’s role in “Knute Rockne, All American” GIPP
47. “Save Me the Waltz” author Fitzgerald ZELDA
48. 3-D graph line Z-AXIS
49. Sends sprawling TRIPS
50. Many a fast-break result LAYUP
51. Outstrip expectations AMAZE
55. Buffalo’s lake ERIE
56. Sicilian tourist attraction ETNA
58. By means of VIA
59. Rev GUN
60. Filming site SET

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