LA Times Crossword Answers 8 Nov 13, Friday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Something to pass or lower THE BAR
The legal profession is referred to as “the bar”. The term arose in medieval times when European courtrooms were divided into two with “barring” furniture, basically a wooden rail that separated the public from the participants in the trial.

7. Crocus kin IRIS
Iris is a genus of flowering plants that come in a wide variety of flower colors. The term “iris” is a Greek word meaning “rainbow”.

11. Samosa veggie PEA
A samosa is quite a tasty appetizer, usually a triangular-shaped savory that often has a vegetarian filling. The word “samosa” is primarily used on Indian menus, and the name comes from “sanbosag”, the name for the dish in Persia.

14. Biblical dancer SALOME
In the New Testament, Salome was a dancer and a seductress. She was the step daughter of Herod and, when she danced for him on his birthday, her mother demanded as a reward the execution of John the Baptist. Salome is not actually named in the account in the gospels, and historians rely on other sources to determine that she was indeed “Salome”.

15. Item in a musician’s kit SIDE DRUM
“Side drum” is an alternative name for the snare drum.

Snare drums are so called because they have a set of wire strands (called snares) stretched across the bottom surface of the drum. When the drum is struck, the snares vibrate against the bottom drumhead producing a unique sound.

17. Western, e.g. OMELET
A Western omelet (or omelette) is also known as a Southwest omelet or a Denver omelet. The usual ingredients include diced ham, onions and green bell peppers.

21. Keats work 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”.

24. Calypso relative SKA
Ska originated in Jamaica in the late fifties and was the precursor to reggae music. No one has a really definitive etymology of the term “ska”, but it is likely to be imitative of some sound.

The musical style of calypso originated in Trinidad and Tobago, but there seems to be some debate about which influences were most important as the genre developed. It is generally agreed that the music was imported by African slaves from their homeland, but others emphasize influences of the medieval French troubadours. To me it sounds more African in nature. Calypso reached the masses when it was first recorded in 1912, and it spread around the world in the thirties and forties. It reached its pinnacle with the release of the famous “Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte.

25. Keats’ “Sylvan historian” URN
English Romantic poet John Keats wrote the famous “Ode on a Grecian Urn” in 1819, and published it anonymously in 1820. The most famous lines of the poem are the last two:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know

26. Really old hardwood? ANTIQUE TEAK
Teak is a hardwood tree in the mint family, commonly found in monsoon forests of Asia.

35. Disney’s “Bambi”? WHITETAIL TALE
The 1942 Disney classic “Bambi” is based on a book written by Felix Salten called “Bambi, A Life in the Woods”. There is a documented phenomenon known as the Bambi Effect, whereby people become more interested in animal rights after having watched the scene where Bambi’s mother is shot by hunters.

42. “Horse Feathers” family name MARX
“Horse Feathers” is a film starring the Marx Brothers that is set in a college during the days of prohibition. Much of the movie revolves around the build-up to a big football game. Groucho Marx plays a professor, the new president of the college.

44. “Merrie Melodies” theme song? CARTOON TUNE
“Merrie Melodies” was a series of cartoons distributed by Warner Brothers, first introduced in 1931, and last produced in 1969.

50. One of two single-digit Yankee uniform numbers that aren’t retired SIX
The New York Yankees were the first team to retire a uniform number, doing so on July 4, 1939. That day the retired the number 4 in honor of Lou Gehrig.

51. A, in Acapulco UNA
The Mexican city of Acapulco is on the southwest coast of the country, in the state of Guerrero. The name “Acapulco” translates from the local language into “at the big reeds”.

52. “Mazel __!” TOV
“Tov” is the Hebrew word for “good”, as in “mozel tov”, meaning “good luck”.

54. Emperor Justinian as a young man? BYZANTINE TEEN
Justinian the Great was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. Part of Justinian’s legacy is the “Corpus Juris Civilis”, the “Body of Civil Law” that forms the basis of modern civil law in many Western states.

Ancient Rome went through three distinct periods. From 753 to 509 BC, Rome was a kingdom, founded by the legendary Romulus. The Roman Republic lasted from 509 to 27 BC. The Republic started with the overthrow of the last monarch, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and replacement by two elected consuls who were advised by a senate. The Republic evolved over time, but came to an end when Octavian expanded his power and declared himself “First Citizen”, and effectively became Rome’s first Emperor and took the name Caesar Augustus. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century. The Eastern Roman Empire survived as the Byzantine Empire that was centered on Constantinople.

65. “Flavor” singer/songwriter TORI AMOS
Tori Amos is an American pianist and singer. She started playing the piano at two years old, and was composing piano pieces by age five. She was playing in piano bars (chaperoned by her father) when she was 14. I’m going to have to find some of her music (I lead such a sheltered life …)!

67. Letters to the Coast Guard SOS
The combination of three dots – three dashes – three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots – pause – three dashes – pause – three dots), although in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so SOS is in effect only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are also mnemonics, introduced after the “SOS” signal was adopted.

The US Coast Guard (USCG) has the distinction of being the country’s oldest continuous seagoing service. The USCG was founded as the Revenue Cutter Service by Alexander Hamilton in 1790.

68. TV component? TELE-
The prefix “tele-” is a component of the word “television”.

Down
1. Chicken general? TSO
General Tso’s chicken is an American creation, often found on the menu of a Chinese restaurant. The name General Tso may be a reference to General Zuo Zongtang of the Qing Dynasty, but there is no clear link.

2. Boar’s Head product HAM
Boar’s Head is a brand of meats and cheeses sold in the delicatessens. The Boar’s Head Company is based in Sarasota, Florida today, although it was founded in New York City in 1905.

3. Like November, in a way ELEVENTH
November is the eleventh month in our calendar. The name comes from the Latin “novem” meaning “nine”, as November was the ninth month in the ancient Roman calendar.

4. Simple tie BOLO
I’ve never worn a bolo tie, and was surprised to discover that it is a relatively recent invention. The first bolo tie was apparently produced in Wickenburg, Arizona in the late 1940s by a silversmith. The bolo takes its name from the boleadora, an Argentine lariat.

5. First name in flight AMELIA
Amelia Earhart is as famous today as she was during her lifetime. When she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by Congress, and the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government. She made two attempts to circumnavigate the globe by air (not solo). Her first attempt in March 1937 had to be abandoned when her aircraft was damaged during takeoff. The second attempt in June/July of the same year ended when Earhart and her navigator disappeared flying from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island in the Central Pacific.

10. Very, in Vienna SEHR
Vienna is the capital of Austria. Vienna has a long musical tradition and was home to Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss (I and II), Josef Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler. As such, Vienna is sometimes called the “City of Music”. It is also called the “City of Dreams” as it was home to the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

12. Golden State motto EUREKA
“Eureka” is the Greek for “I have found it”, and is the motto of the state of California.

“The Golden State” has been the official nickname of California since 1968. The nickname reflects the expansion of the state’s economy that followed the discovery of gold, and also the fields of golden poppies seen growing wild across California in the spring.

13. California Zephyr operator AMTRAK
The California Zephyr is a passenger train that operates between Chicago and Emeryville, California. That’s a distance of 2,438 miles, making it the longest route operated by Amtrak.

16. “Law & Order: SVU” rank DET
“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” is a spin off the TV crime drama “Law & Order”. “SVU” has been on the air since 1999, and is set in New York City. Interestingly, since 2007 there has been a very successful Russian adaptation of the show that is set in Moscow.

29. Item shortened at bitly.com URL
Internet addresses (like NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) are more correctly called Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).

Bitly is a URL shortening service. URl shortening is the practice of using a shorter URL name that takes a browser to a page that has a longer, more complicated URL name. The shorter name is deemed to be “prettier” and more memorable. For example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=TinyURL&diff=283621022&oldid=283308287

 can be shortened to:

http://bit.ly/tinyurlwiki.

37. Massage beneficiary EGO
Sigmund Freud created a structural model of the human psyche, breaking it into three parts: the id, the ego, and the super-ego. The id is that part of the psyche containing the basic instinctual drives. The ego seeks to please the id by causing realistic behavior that benefits the individual. The super-ego almost has a parental role, contradicting the id by introducing critical thinking and morals to behavioral choices.

38. Its atomic number is 50 TIN
The Latin word for tin is “stannum”, and so tin’s atomic symbol is “Sn”.

40. Lakeside Pennsylvania city ERIE
Erie is a city in the very north of Pennsylvania, right on the southern shore of Lake Erie. The city takes its name from the Erie Native American tribe that resided in the area.

43. Love letters? XXX
In the sequence XOX, the X represents a kiss, and the O a hug. OOO is a string of hugs, and XXX a string of kisses. Hugs and kisses …

44. Ark units CUBITS
The ancient unit of length called a cubit was chosen as the length of the forearm. In some cultures a cubit was divided into 7 palms, the width of the hand excluding the thumb.

The term “ark”, when used with reference to Noah, is a translation of the Hebrew word “tebah”. The word “tebah” is also used in the Bible for the basket in which Moses was placed by his mother when she floated him down the Nile. It seems that the word “tebah” doesn’t mean “boat” and nor does it mean “basket”. Rather, a more appropriate translation is “life-preserver” or “life-saver”. So, Noah’s ark was Noah’s life-preserver during the flood.

47. 4 x 4, briefly UTE
A utility vehicle is often called a “ute” for short. Nowadays one mainly hears about sports utes and crossover utes.

55. Prefix with culture API-
“Apis” is the Latin word for “bee”. Apiculture is the raising and caring of bees.

57. “The devourer of all things”: Ovid TIME
The Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso is today known simply as Ovid. Ovid is usually listed alongside the two other great Roman poets: Horace and Virgil.

58. Statue of Vishnu, e.g. IDOL
The Hindu Trinity is Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer or preserver, and Shiva (also Siva) the destroyer or transformer.

59. Oenophile’s criterion NOSE
In Greek mythology, Oeno was the goddess of wine, giving us “oen-” as a prefix meaning “wine”. For example, oenology is the study of wine and an oenophile is a wine-lover.

60. __ Squalor: Lemony Snicket character ESME
Lemony Snicket is a pen name used by Daniel Handler, a novelist from San Francisco, California. Snicket also appears as the narrator of his books, including the best known of the works: “A Series of Unfortunate Events”. Count Olaf is the antagonist in “A Series of Unfortunate Events”.

63. Composer Rorem NED
American composer Ned Rorem is famous for his musical compositions, but also for his book, “Paris Diary of Ned Rorem” that was published in 1966. Rorem talks openly about his sexuality in the book, and also about the sexuality of others including Noel Coward, Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber, much to some people’s chagrin.

64. English cathedral city ELY
Ely Cathedral is a famous and beautiful church in the city of Ely in the county of Cambridgeshire. There is a Gothic door on the north face of the cathedral that was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the man famous as the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Christopher Wren had a personal link to the church, as his uncle was the Bishop of Ely.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Something to pass or lower THE BAR
7. Crocus kin IRIS
11. Samosa veggie PEA
14. Biblical dancer SALOME
15. Item in a musician’s kit SIDE DRUM
17. Western, e.g. OMELET
18. Kind and caring ALL HEART
19. Stadium section for charity workers? VOLUNTEER TIER
21. Keats work ODE
23. Steam IRE
24. Calypso relative SKA
25. Keats’ “Sylvan historian” URN
26. Really old hardwood? ANTIQUE TEAK
32. “Phooey!” RATS!
34. Give a damn? CURSE
35. Disney’s “Bambi”? WHITETAIL TALE
41. Paralyze with dense mist, as an airport FOG IN
42. “Horse Feathers” family name MARX
44. “Merrie Melodies” theme song? CARTOON TUNE
50. One of two single-digit Yankee uniform numbers that aren’t retired SIX
51. A, in Acapulco UNA
52. “Mazel __!” TOV
53. Ranch handle TEX
54. Emperor Justinian as a young man? BYZANTINE TEEN
61. “That’s my intention” I HOPE I DO
62. Around the bend, so to speak INSANE
65. “Flavor” singer/songwriter TORI AMOS
66. Beat badly PUMMEL
67. Letters to the Coast Guard SOS
68. TV component? TELE-
69. Quick SPEEDY

Down
1. Chicken general? TSO
2. Boar’s Head product HAM
3. Like November, in a way ELEVENTH
4. Simple tie BOLO
5. First name in flight AMELIA
6. Library requirement RETURN
7. “The wolf __ the door” IS AT
8. Get to RILE
9. Sit in traffic, say IDLE
10. Very, in Vienna SEHR
11. Words of tribute PRAISE
12. Golden State motto EUREKA
13. California Zephyr operator AMTRAK
16. “Law & Order: SVU” rank DET
20. Bottom line NET
21. Word of possession OUR
22. Western challenge DRAW
27. Terse refusal I CAN’T
28. Who, in Paris QUI
29. Item shortened at bitly.com URL
30. Md. hours EST
31. Cooperative group TEAM
33. Cake recipe word SIFT
36. As well TOO
37. Massage beneficiary EGO
38. Its atomic number is 50 TIN
39. Common sorting basis LAST NAME
40. Lakeside Pennsylvania city ERIE
43. Love letters? XXX
44. Ark units CUBITS
45. “As I was sayin’ …” ANYHOO
46. They may be straight RAZORS
47. 4 x 4, briefly UTE
48. Policy at some restaurants NO TIPS
49. Align carefully EVEN UP
55. Prefix with culture API-
56. Bar order NEAT
57. “The devourer of all things”: Ovid TIME
58. Statue of Vishnu, e.g. IDOL
59. Oenophile’s criterion NOSE
60. __ Squalor: Lemony Snicket character ESME
63. Composer Rorem NED
64. English cathedral city ELY

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