LA Times Crossword Answers 5 Dec 13, Thursday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Steve Blais
THEME: Something’s Missing … three clues are “missing” today, pointing us to phrases meaning “I can’t work this out” …

20A. ” ” I’M DRAWING A BLANK
36A. ” ” HOW WOULD I KNOW?
53A. ” ” I HAVEN’T GOT A CLUE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 11m 54s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

10. Bit of Halloween makeup SCAR
All Saints’ Day is November 1st each year. The day before All Saints’ Day is All Hallows Eve, better known by the Scottish term “Halloween”.

14. Gray subj. ANAT
“Gray’s Anatomy” is a very successful human anatomy textbook that was first published back in 1858 and is still in print today. The original text was written by English anatomist Henry Gray, who gave his name to the work. The TV medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” is centered on the character Dr. Meredith Grey, but the show’s title is a nod to the title of the famous textbook.

16. Parting words TATA
An Englishman might say “tata” or “cheerio” instead of “goodbye”. Well, supposedly so!

18. Parting word ADIOS
The term “adios” is of course Spanish for “goodbye”. In the Spanish language, “adios” comes from the phrase “a dios vos acomiendo” meaning “I commend you to God”.

19. Erelong ANON
“Anon” originally meant “at once” and evolved into today’s meaning of “soon” apparently just because the word was misused over time.

23. Presidential nickname ABE
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the US, elected in 1860 as the first president from the Republican Party. Lincoln’s electoral support came almost exclusively from the north and west of the country, winning only 2 out of 996 counties in the Southern slave states. Lincoln led the country through Civil War, and then was assassinated in 1865 just a few days after Robert E. Lee surrendered his army of Northern Virginia. President Lincoln was succeeded in office by Vice President Andrew Johnson.

24. Inflationary fig.? PSI
Pounds Per Square Inch (PSI) is a measure of pressure.

26. Language of Pakistan URDU
Urdu is one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and is one of 22 scheduled languages in India. Urdu partly developed from Persian and is written from right to left.

28. Peak on the 1,000-yen note FUJI
Mount Fuji is Japan’s highest and most famous mountain. It is an active volcano, and is located just west of Tokyo.

32. __-Julie, Quebec STE
Sainte-Julie is a suburb of Montreal in Quebec.

41. Morse code letter after dit-dit-dit DAH
The letter S in Morse code is “dit-dit-dit” ( . . . ). The letter T is “dah” ( – ).

42. Outlaw Clanton IKE
Ike and Billy Clanton participated in what has to be the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral that took place in Tombstone, Arizona. Strangely enough, the fight didn’t happen at the O.K. Corral, but took place six doors down the street in a vacant lot next to a photography studio.

46. Gorilla trained to use sign language KOKO
Koko is a female Lowland Gorilla that lives in Woodside, California. The researcher Penny Patterson taught Koko to speak a modified form of American Sign Language (ASL) that she called Gorilla Sign Language. Koko can apparently use over a thousand signs.

47. Holiday air CAROL
The word “carol” came into English via the Old French word “carole”, which was a “dance in a ring”. When “carol” made it into English, about 1300 AD, the term was used to describe a dance as well as a joyful song. Around 1500 AD, carols that were sung came to be associated with Christmas.

49. Mao __-tung TSE
Mao Zedong (also “Mao Tse-tung”) was born on December 16, 1893 in the Hunan Province of China. As Mao was the son of a peasant farmer, his prospects for education were limited. Indeed he left school at age 13 to work on the family farm but did eventually get to secondary school in Changsha, the provincial capital. In the years following, Mao continued his education in Beijing and actually turned down an opportunity to study in France.

51. Ten-cent pres. FDR
President Roosevelt was a major driver in the founding of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The Foundation’s most successful fund raising campaign was to encourage the public to just send a dime to support the charity, so that even before the Foundation officially changed its name, the public were already calling it March of Dimes. After President Roosevelt passed away in office, Congress passed legislation calling for a new design for the dime, one featuring the image of FDR. The Roosevelt dime was introduced in 1946, on the day that would have been the President’s 64th birthday.

58. Designer Schiaparelli ELSA
Elsa Schiaparelli was an Italian fashion designer, a great rival of the perhaps more famous Coco Chanel. Schiaparelli was most successful between the two World Wars, but her business closed in 1954 as she failed to adapt to changing tastes after WWII.

59. The Joe in Detroit, for one ARENA
Joe Louis Arena in downtown Detroit is known locally as “the Joe”. The Joe is home to the Detroit Red Wings hockey team. The arena is named for famed boxer Joe Louis, who grew up in Detroit.

61. Tallow source SUET
Fat, when extracted from the carcass of an animal, is called “suet”. Untreated suet decomposes at room temperature quite easily so it has to be “rendered” or purified to make it stable. Rendered fat from pigs is what we call “lard”. Rendered beef or mutton fat is known as “tallow”.

65. Bout of retail “therapy” SPREE
A shopping spree is sometimes referred to as “retail therapy”.

Down
1. “Lost” actress Raymonde TANIA
Actress Tania Raymonde’s big break came with a recurring role in “Malcolm in the Middle”, playing Cynthia Sanders from 2000 to 2003. She is better known now for having played Alex Rousseau in the hit TV show “Lost”.

3. Gratify the baser side of PANDER TO
“To pander” is to cater to the lower desires of someone, perhaps to exploit a weakness. The verb comes from the noun “pander”, which was basically a pimp, one who arranged sexual liaisons. The term ultimately derives from a Trojan aristocrat named Pandarus who appears in Homer’s “Iliad”. In medieval literature, Pandarus was portrayed as a bawdy figure who helped Prince Troilus have an affair with young Cressida.

10. Clichéd STALE
“Cliché” is a word that comes from the world of printing. In the days when type was added as individual letters into a printing plate, for efficiency some oft-used phrases and words were created as one single slug of metal. The word “cliché” was used for such a grouping of letters. It’s easy to see how the same word would become a term to describe any overused phrase. Supposedly, “cliché” comes from French, from the verb “clicher” meaning “to click”. The idea is that when a matrix of letters was dropped in molten metal to make a cliché, it made a clicking sound.

11. Happy hour morsel CANAPE
A canapé is a finger food, usually small enough to eat in just one bite. In French, “canapé” is actually the word for a couch or a sofa. The name was given to the snack as the original “canapés” were savories served on toasted or stale bread that supposedly resembled a “couch”.

21. Manjula’s husband on “The Simpsons” APU
The fictional Kwik-E-Mart store is operated by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on “The Simpsons” TV show. The convenience store owner doesn’t seem to be making much use of his Ph.D in computer science that he earned in the US. Apu’s undergraduate degree is from Caltech (the Calcutta Technical Institute), where he graduated top of his class of seven million students …

33. U2 frontman BONO
Irish singer Bono is a Dubliner, born Paul David Hewson. As a youth, Hewson was given the nickname “Bono Vox” by a friend, a Latin expression meaning “good voice”, and so the singer has been known as Bono since the late seventies. His band’s first name was “Feedback”, later changed to “The Hype”. The band members searched for yet another name and chose U2 from a list of six names suggested by a friend. They picked U2 because it was the name they disliked least …

35. Prefix with morph ENDO-
Back in the forties, the American psychologist William Herbert postulated that a person’s temperament could be associated with body-type. This theory has largely been debunked, but his classification of the population into three body-types is still used today:

Ectomorphic: a slim person with low levels of fat storage and thin muscles
Mesomorphic: a muscular person with relatively low levels of fat
Endomorphic: a person who has higher levels of stored fat

37. Pixar title robot WALL-E
“WALL-E” is a very cute, Pixar movie, released in 2008. The hero of the piece is a robot called WALL-E, who loves his “Hello Dolly”, and who falls in love with another robot called EVE.

43. Black Russian component KAHLUA
A White Russian is a cocktail made from vodka, Kahlua or Tia Maria, and cream, served in an old-fashioned glass with ice. The White Russian is similar to a Black Russian, which is the same drink without the cream. Both cocktails are called “Russian” as they are based on vodka, and both have been around since the late forties, with no one seeming to know which drink came first.

46. Alpine parrot KEA
The kea is a large parrot that is found on the South Island of New Zealand. Apparently tourists love keas as they are intelligent and curious. Natives tend to regard them as pests, for the same reasons.

48. Roundish OVATE
Something that is “ovate” is egg-shaped.

49. 1,000 kilograms TONNE
The “tonne” is also called a “metric ton”, and is equivalent to 1,000 kg. The tonne isn’t an official unit of mass in the metric system, but it is used a lot.

50. Kerry’s department STATE
Secretary of State John Kerry enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966 and went straight into Officer Candidate School. Kerry’s first post was as an ensign on a frigate in the Vietnam theater, mainly working on rescue missions picking up downed pilots. He requested a transfer to Swift boat duty. While serving on Swift boats Kerry was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts.

The US Department of State is the equivalent of the Foreign Ministry in many other countries, and is responsible for international relations. Ceremonially, the Secretary of State is the highest ranking of all Cabinet officials, and is the highest ranking in the presidential line of succession (fourth, after the Vice President, the Speaker of the House and the President pro tem of the Senate). The department was created in 1789 by President Washington, the first of all executive departments created. The first Secretary of State was future president Thomas Jefferson.

57. José’s home CASA
“Casa” is Spanish for “house, home”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Rewards for waiting TIPS
5. Sauce finisher, often CREAM
10. Bit of Halloween makeup SCAR
14. Gray subj. ANAT
15. Expansive LARGE
16. Parting words TATA
17. Family nickname NANA
18. Parting word ADIOS
19. Erelong ANON
20. ” ” I’M DRAWING A BLANK
23. Presidential nickname ABE
24. Inflationary fig.? PSI
25. Drive off REPEL
26. Language of Pakistan URDU
28. Peak on the 1,000-yen note FUJI
31. Language suffix -ESE
32. __-Julie, Quebec STE
33. Nail-biting way to win BY A NOSE
36. ” ” HOW WOULD I KNOW?
40. Jerks YANKS ON
41. Morse code letter after dit-dit-dit DAH
42. Outlaw Clanton IKE
45. Get rid of LOSE
46. Gorilla trained to use sign language KOKO
47. Holiday air CAROL
49. Mao __-tung TSE
51. Ten-cent pres. FDR
53. ” ” I HAVEN’T GOT A CLUE
58. Designer Schiaparelli ELSA
59. The Joe in Detroit, for one ARENA
60. Superb A-ONE
61. Tallow source SUET
62. Huge GIANT
63. Earthworm habitat SOIL
64. Stun, in a way TASE
65. Bout of retail “therapy” SPREE
66. Fine subject? ARTS

Down
1. “Lost” actress Raymonde TANIA
2. How soldiers may lie IN AMBUSH
3. Gratify the baser side of PANDER TO
4. Have the lead STAR
5. Shellfish morsels CLAWS
6. Lines from the center RADII
7. 33-Down’s homeland ERIN
8. Open-mouthed AGOG
9. Western landform MESA
10. Clichéd STALE
11. Happy hour morsel CANAPE
12. Makes amends ATONES
13. Rub the wrong way RANKLE
21. Manjula’s husband on “The Simpsons” APU
22. Like autumn mornings BRISK
27. Like morning grass DEWY
28. Made-up FALSE
29. Loosen, as laces UNDO
30. Enroll JOIN
33. U2 frontman BONO
34. Belly laughs YUKS
35. Prefix with morph ENDO-
37. Pixar title robot WALL-E
38. Hardwood option OAK FLOOR
39. Mystery WHODUNIT
42. Most distant ICIEST
43. Black Russian component KAHLUA
44. Fulfills a takeout order? ERASES
46. Alpine parrot KEA
48. Roundish OVATE
49. 1,000 kilograms TONNE
50. Kerry’s department STATE
52. Projection room stack REELS
54. Badgers NAGS
55. It may be round TRIP
56. Stuff in a backpack GEAR
57. José’s home CASA

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