LA Times Crossword Answers 6 Dec 13, Friday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Marti DuGuay-Carpenter
THEME: Be M, W … today’s themed answers are common terms that begin with the letter W, except that W has been changed to a M, to suit the clue:

20A. Odd way to check for ore? MINE TASTING (from “wine tasting”)
57A. What you need when your car is stuck in the mud? MIRE SERVICE (from “wire service”)
11D. Summons from the cosmetician? MAKEUP CALL (from “wake-up call”)
29D. Fix potatoes the hard way? MASH BY HAND (from “wash by hand”)

37D. Audi rival, and, when spoken as a command, a hint to this puzzle’s theme BMW (sounds like “be M, W”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 12m 10s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Some arm bands TATS
The word “tattoo” (often shortened to “tat”) was first used in English in the writings of the famous English explorer Captain Cook. In his descriptions of the indelible marks adorning the skin of Polynesian natives, Cook anglicized the Tahitian word “tatau” into our “tattoo”.

14. Earthy hue 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”.

16. Heat energy source? MIAMI
The Miami Heat basketball team debuted in the NBA in the 1988-89 season. The franchise name was chosen in a competitive survey, with “Miami Heat” beating out “Miami Vice”.

18. __ accompli FAIT
Fait accompli is a French term, literally translating as “accomplished fact”. It is used in English to mean “a done deal”.

23. Dreyer’s partner in ice cream 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.

24. Blooms with hips ROSES
The fruit of the rose plant is known as the rose hip or rose haw. I remember drinking rose hip syrup when I was a kid.

25. Waimea Bay locale OAHU
Waimea Bay is located on the north shore of O’ahu in the Hawaiian Islands.

27. Uncomfortable place to be in LIMBO
In Dante’s “Inferno”, Hell is represented as nine circles of suffering. The nine circles of Hell are:

– Limbo
– Lust
– Gluttony
– Greed
– Anger
– Heresy
– Violence
– Fraud
– Treachery

33. Atty.’s group ABA
American Bar Association (ABA)

34. Letter before mu LAMBDA
The letter L in our modern Latin alphabet is equivalent to the Greek letter lambda.

The Greek letter mu is the forerunner to our Roman letter M.

38. It may be a lot ACRE
At one time, an acre was defined as the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plow in a day. This was more precisely defined as a strip of land one furlong long (660 feet) and one chain wide (66 feet). The word “furlong” is actually derived from the Old English words meaning “furrow long”, the length of the furrow plowed by the oxen.

39. ’50s sitcom name DESI
In the hit television show “I Love Lucy”, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.

Desi Arnaz was of course famous for his turbulent marriage to Lucille Ball. Arnaz was a native of Cuba, and was from a privileged family. Desi’s father was Mayor of Santiago and served in the Cuban House of Representatives. However, the family had to flee to Miami after the 1933 revolt led by Batista.

41. Pyle of Mayberry GOMER
Jim Nabors was discovered by Andy Griffith and brought onto “The Andy Griffith Show” as Gomer Pyle, the gas station attendant. Of course, Nabors then got his own show, “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”

42. Mumbai music RAGA
Raga isn’t really a type of music, but has been described as the “tonal framework” in which Indian classical music is composed. Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous raga virtuoso (to us Westerners).

Mumbai is the most populous city in India, and the second most populous city in the world (after Shanghai). The name of the city was changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995.

43. 1939 Garland co-star 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.

The actress Judy Garland’s real name was Frances Gumm. Garland was respected and loved both within and without the entertainment industry. She was the youngest recipient, at 39 years old, of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry.

The 1939 classic film “The Wizard of Oz” didn’t do very well at the box office when it was released for its first run. It was the most expensive film ever made at that time, and disappointed the studios by only returning about a million dollars in profit for them. It also failed to win the Best Picture Oscar (losing out to “Gone with the Wind”), but “Over the Rainbow” did win the Academy Award for Best Original Song. But “The Wizard of Oz” gained a lot of ground in subsequent years through re-releases. It is now the most watched movie in history.

47. Attaché’s place EMBASSY
Attaché is a French term which literally means “attached”, and is used for a person who is assigned to the administrative staff of some agency or other service. The term is most recognized as it applies to someone assigned to an Ambassador’s staff at an embassy. The word was extended to “attaché case” at the beginning of the twentieth century, meaning a leather case used for carrying papers, perhaps by an attaché at an embassy.

55. Dash no. MPH
Back in the 1800s, “dashboard” was the name given to a “board” placed at the front of a carriage to stop mud from “dashing” against the passengers in the carriage, mud that was kicked up by the hoofs of the horses. Quite interesting …

62. Muse for Millay ERATO
In Greek mythology, Erato was the Muse of Lyric Poetry.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright, the third woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (in 1923 for “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”). Millay was noted not only for her work, but also for the open arrangement that she and her husband had in their marriage. Millay took many lovers, including the poet George Dillon for whom she wrote a number of sonnets.

64. Culture medium AGAR
Agar is a jelly extracted from seaweed that has many uses. Agar is found in Japanese desserts, and can also be used as a food thickener or even as a laxative. In the world of science it is the most common medium used for growing bacteria in Petri dishes.

65. Scraped together, with “out” EKED
To “eke out” means to “make something go further or last longer”. So, you can eke out your income by cutting back on expenses.

66. Maker of the Mighty Dump TONKA
The toy manufacturer today known as Tonka started out as a manufacturer of garden implements in Mound, Minnesota in 1946. By 1955, toys had become the main product line for the company. At that time the owners decided to change the company name and opted for “Tonka”, a Dakota Sioux word meaning “great, big”.

67. Pace GAIT
“Gait” can mean the rate at which one moves along.

70. Some shooters, briefly SLRS
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.

71. “Toodles!” TATA!
An Englishman might say “tata” or “cheerio” instead of “goodbye”. Well, supposedly so!

Down
2. Opening on Broadway ACT I
Broadway really is, and always has been, the Main Street of New York City. It started out as the Wickquasgeck Trail that was trampled into the Manhattan brush land by the Native Americans of the area. In the days of the Dutch, the trail became the main road though the island of Manhattan, down to the New Amsterdam settlement in the south. The Dutch described it as a “Breede weg”, a broad street or “broad way”. The name Broadway was adopted as the official name for the whole thoroughfare in 1899 … on Valentine’s Day.

3. “__: Uprising”: Disney sci-fi series TRON
“Tron: Uprising” is a television series that is part of the “Tron” franchise, which started with the 1982 Walt Disney film “Tron”.

5. Remote hiding places? SOFAS
“Sofa” is a Turkish word meaning “bench”.

7. DDE and JFK, e.g. INITS
DDE (Dwight D. Eisenhower) and JFK (John F. Kennedy) are sets of initials (inits.).

9. Pamplona pals AMIGAS
Pamplona, Spain is famous for its San Fermin festival held in July every year, the highlight of which is the Running of the Bulls. Every year, 200-300 people are injured in the bull run, and 15 people have been killed since 1910. If you get to Pamplona two days before the Running of the Bulls, you can see the animal-rights protest event known as the Running of the Nudes. The protesters are as naked as the bulls …

10. E, but not A, I, O or U DIR
East (E) is a direction (dir.).

12. Contacted, in a way, briefly IMED
Instant message (IM)

22. Official with a seal NOTARY
A notary public is a public officer licensed to perform specific legal actions in non-contentious legal matters. The main duties are to administer oaths, take affidavits and witness the execution of documents.

26. Winter coat HOAR
The Old English word “har” meant “gray, venerable, old”, and came into English as “hoar” (and later “hoary”) with the same meaning. The term “hoar-frost” dates back to the 13th century, and reflects the similarity of the white feathers of frost to the gray/white of an old man’s beard.

27. Serve from a pot LADLE
The verb “lade” meaning “to load” comes from an Old English word “hladan”. Lade also used to mean “to draw water” and indeed gave us our word “ladle”. So “lade” and “ladle” are close cousins.

30. Bean sprout? IDEA
The bean, the conk, the head …

31. Rye fungus ERGOT
Ergot is a fungus, or actually a group of fungi, that cause disease in rye and related plants. If human eat ergot-contaminated grain, a condition called ergotism can result. Ergotism is the result of consumption of alkaloids produced by the fungi, alkaloids that can cause seizures and manic behavior. It has even been suggested that the hysteria exhibited by the Salem “witches” was perhaps caused by the ingestion of ergot-contaminated rye.

32. Some tides NEAPS
Tides of course are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

35. “Open” autobiographer AGASSI
Renowned tennis professional Andre Agassi wrote an autobiography called “Open”, published in 2009. An amazing revelation in the book is that Agassi’s famous head of hair was actually a wig for much of his playing career. Can you imagine how hard it must have been to play tennis at his level with a rug stuck on?

36. Herb that protected Odysseus from Circe’s magic MOLY
In Homer’s “Odyssey”, Odysseus was given the herb called “moly” to protect him from the magical powers of Circe.

37. Audi rival, and, when spoken as a command, a hint to this puzzle’s theme BMW (sounds like “be M, W”)
The acronym BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke, which translates into Bavarian Motor Works. BMW was making aircraft engines during WWI, but had to cease that activity according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The company then started making motorcycles, and then moved into automobile production starting in 1928. BMW moved back into aircraft engine manufacturing during the build-up of the Luftwaffe prior to WWII.

The Audi name has an interesting history. The Horch company was founded by August Horch in 1909. Early in the life of the new company, Horch was forced out of his own business. He set up a new enterprise and continued to use his own name as a brand. The old company sued him for using the Horch name so a meeting was held to choose something new. Horch’s young son was studying Latin in the room where the meeting was taking place. He pointed out that “Horch” was German for “hear” and he suggested “Audi” as a replacement, the Latin for “listen”.

40. “Dies __” IRAE
“Dies Irae” is Latin for “Day of Wrath”. It is the name of a famous melody in Gregorian Chant, one that is often used as part of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass.

48. South Pacific islander SAMOAN
The official name for the South Pacific country formerly known as Western Samoa is the Independent State of Samoa. “Samoa” is the western part of the island group, with American Samoa lying to the southeast. The whole group of islands used to be known as Navigators Island, a name given by European explorers in recognition of the seafaring skills of the native Samoans.

53. Allegheny, as of 1979 USAIR
From 1953, what today is US Airways was called Allegheny Airlines. In the seventies, customers became very dissatisfied with the company’s service levels as it struggled to manage a rapid expansion in its number of flights. These problems earned the airline the nickname “Agony Air”. Allegheny tried to leave the “agony” behind in 1979 and changed its name to USAir. In 1997, the name was again changed, to US Airways.

54. “Darn!” NERTS!
“Nerts” is a slang term, a corruption of “nuts!” and has the same meaning.

55. Self-referential prefix, in modern lingo META
In recent decades the prefix “meta-” has started to be used as a standalone adjective. In this sense “meta” means “self-referential”, describing something that refers to itself. For example, “This sentence starts with the word ‘this’ and ends with the word ‘this’” might be called a meta sentence. A movie that is about the making of the very same movie could also be described as meta.

58. Tabloids, to some RAGS
“Tabloid” is the trademarked name (owned by Burroughs, Wellcome and Co,) for a “small tablet of medicine”, a name that goes back to 1884. The word “tabloid” had entered into general use to mean a compressed form of anything, and by the early 1900s was used in “tabloid journalism”, applied to newspapers that had short, condensed articles and stories printed on smaller sheets of paper.

59. Flat pack furniture seller IKEA
Did you know that IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943 when he was just 17-years-old??!! IKEA is an acronym that stands for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd (don’t forget now!). Elmtaryd was the name of the farm where Ingvar Kamprad grew up, and Agunnaryd is his home parish in Sweden.

61. Icelandic literary work 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.

63. Ref’s ruling TKO
In boxing, a knockout (KO) is when one of the fighters can’t get up from the canvas within a specified time, usually 10 seconds. This can be due to fatigue, injury, or the participant may be truly “knocked out”. A referee, fighter or doctor may also decide to stop a fight without a physical knockout, especially if there is concern about a fighter’s safety. In this case the bout is said to end with a technical knockout (TKO).

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Some arm bands TATS
5. Work on the web SPIN
9. Grant access ADMIT
14. Earthy hue ECRU
15. “That can’t be!” OH NO!
16. Heat energy source? MIAMI
17. On the roof of ATOP
18. __ accompli FAIT
19. Seeing red IRKED
20. Odd way to check for ore? MINE TASTING (from “wine tasting”)
23. Dreyer’s partner in ice cream EDY
24. Blooms with hips ROSES
25. Waimea Bay locale OAHU
27. Uncomfortable place to be in LIMBO
30. Friendly response to a knock IT’S OPEN
33. Atty.’s group ABA
34. Letter before mu LAMBDA
38. It may be a lot ACRE
39. ’50s sitcom name DESI
41. Pyle of Mayberry GOMER
42. Mumbai music RAGA
43. 1939 Garland co-star LAHR
44. Without exception ALWAYS
46. Remove LOP
47. Attaché’s place EMBASSY
49. Is inclined TILTS
51. Shows of support YEAS
52. Bit of a scrap RUN-IN
55. Dash no. MPH
57. What you need when your car is stuck in the mud? MIRE SERVICE (from “wire service”)
62. Muse for Millay ERATO
64. Culture medium AGAR
65. Scraped together, with “out” EKED
66. Maker of the Mighty Dump TONKA
67. Pace GAIT
68. Texter’s button SEND
69. Optional component ADD-ON
70. Some shooters, briefly SLRS
71. “Toodles!” TATA!

Down
1. One in the standings TEAM
2. Opening on Broadway ACT I
3. “__: Uprising”: Disney sci-fi series TRON
4. A-one SUPERB
5. Remote hiding places? SOFAS
6. Introduce gradually, with “in” PHASE
7. DDE and JFK, e.g. INITS
8. Words of denial NOT I
9. Pamplona pals AMIGAS
10. E, but not A, I, O or U DIR
11. Summons from the cosmetician? MAKEUP CALL (from “wake-up call”)
12. Contacted, in a way, briefly IMED
13. Neat TIDY
21. Trade item? TOOL
22. Official with a seal NOTARY
26. Winter coat HOAR
27. Serve from a pot LADLE
28. Steel girder I-BEAM
29. Fix potatoes the hard way? MASH BY HAND (from “wash by hand”)
30. Bean sprout? IDEA
31. Rye fungus ERGOT
32. Some tides NEAPS
35. “Open” autobiographer AGASSI
36. Herb that protected Odysseus from Circe’s magic MOLY
37. Audi rival, and, when spoken as a command, a hint to this puzzle’s theme BMW (sounds like “be M, W”)
40. “Dies __” IRAE
45. Move a little STIR
48. South Pacific islander SAMOAN
50. Use money to make money INVEST
52. Majestic REGAL
53. Allegheny, as of 1979 USAIR
54. “Darn!” NERTS!
55. Self-referential prefix, in modern lingo META
56. Impel PROD
58. Tabloids, to some RAGS
59. Flat pack furniture seller IKEA
60. One seen in a store dish CENT
61. Icelandic literary work EDDA
63. Ref’s ruling TKO

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