LA Times Crossword Answers 2 Jan 14, Thursday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Jeffrey Wechsler
THEME: Contractions … each of today’s answers starts with a string of letters that often make up a word that is a CONTRACTION:

17A. *Sweet melons CANTALOUPES (giving “can’t”)
24A. *Ramshackle community SHANTY TOWN (giving “shan’t)
31A. *The Prairie State ILLINOIS (giving “I’ll”)
40A. *Horror film shapeshifter WEREWOLF (giving “we’re”)
47A. *Chinese restaurant staple WONTON SOUP (giving “won’t”)

56A. Beginning of labor, and, in another sense, the beginning of each answer to a starred clue CONTRACTION

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 10m 18s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

11. Woody Allen asset WIT
Woody Allen’s real name is Allan Stewart Konigsberg. He has been nominated for an Academy Award an incredible 21 times in many different categories, and has won on three occasions. He has more Oscar nominations as a screenwriter than any other writer, but he spurns the Awards ceremony and only attended it once in all his years in the movie business. He broke tradition by turning up at the 2002 ceremony, unannounced, to beg producers to continue filming in his beloved New York City despite the fears created by the 9/11 attacks.

14. Soul, in Somme AME
“Ame” is the French word for “soul”.

The Somme is a department in the very north of France, in the Picardy region. The Somme is famous as the site of devastating battles during WWI.

15. City that was the source of the marble for Michelangelo’s “David” CARRARA
Carrara is a city in the Tuscany region of Italy. The city’s name might come from an ancient term “kar” meaning stone. Carrara has been a source for prized white and blue-grey marble since the days of Ancient Rome.

16. Squeeze (out) EKE
To “eke out” means to “make something go further or last longer”. For example, you could eke out your income by cutting back on expenses. I always have a problem with the commonly cited definition of “eke out” as “barely get by”. Close but no cigar, I say …

17. *Sweet melons CANTALOUPES (giving “can’t”)
The cantaloupe is the most popular type of melon consumed in the US. Apparently the cantaloupe was first cultivated in Cantalupo in Sabina, a town near Rome in Italy.

19. Taylor of fashion ANN
There was no such woman as “Ann Taylor” associated with the Ann Taylor line of clothes. The name was chosen by the marketing professionals because “Ann” was considered to be “very New England” back in 1954 when the stores first opened, and “Taylor” suggested that clothes were carefully “tailored”.

21. CD return INT
Interest (int.)

A certificate of deposit (CD) is like a less-flexible and higher-paying savings account. Instead of depositing money into a savings account and earning interest periodically, one can open a CD. With a CD one deposits a minimum amount of money but must leave it there for a specified length of time. In return for committing the funds for a fixed period, one is given a higher interest rate than a savings account and can redeem that interest and the initial deposit when the term has expired. CDs are relatively low-risk investments as they are FDIC insured, just like savings accounts.

22. Princess provoker PEA
“The Princess and the Pea” is a fairy tale from the pen of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The essence of the story is that a prince’s mother tests the royal blood of an apparent princess by placing a pea under a pile of mattresses on which the young girl sleeps. The girl complains of a restless night, demonstrating a physical sensitivity that can only be attributed to a princess. And they all live happily ever after …

23. Agile 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.

24. *Ramshackle community SHANTY TOWN (giving “shan’t)
A shanty town is a slum settlement with shelters made from sheets of wood, corrugated metal, plastic and cardboard. The term probably comes from the Canadian French “chantier”, which was a temporary station established for lumberjacks during the winter.

28. Forest mom DOE
A male deer is usually called a “buck”, and a female a “doe”.

29. Kublai __ KHAN
Kublai Khan was leader of the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1294. Kublai Khan was a grandson of Genghis Khan. Kublai Khan had a summer garden at Kanadu, which famously was the subject of the 1797 poem “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

31. *The Prairie State ILLINOIS (giving “I’ll”)
The State of Illinois is known as “Land of Lincoln” as well as “The Prairie State”.

33. Some words in baby books? FIRSTS
Baby’s first word, baby’s first tooth etc.

35. Kitten cry MEWL
To mewl is to cry weakly, like a baby, with the word being somewhat imitative.

36. Warm-water shark MAKO
The shortfin mako shark can appear on restaurant menus, and as a result the species is dying out in some parts of the world. The mako gets its own back sometimes though, and attacks on humans are not unknown. And the shark in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”, that’s a mako.

37. Smooth moves SEGUES
A “segue” is a transition from one topic to the next. “Segue” is an Italian word that literally means “now follows”. It was first used in musical scores directing the performer to play into the next movement without a break.

40. *Horror film shapeshifter WEREWOLF (giving “we’re”)
The prefix “were-” as in “werewolf” derives from an old word “wer” meaning “man”. Hence a werewolf is a “man-wolf”.

44. “Rag Mop” singing brothers AMES
The Ames Brothers were a singing quartet who were active in the 1950s. The “brothers” (actually three brothers and a cousin) started out as an act called the Amory Brothers. After the quartet disbanded in 1961, Ed Ames went on to have a successful solo singing career, and became a familiar television actor. Ed played “Mingo”, the sidekick to the title character on “Daniel Boone” that ran in the sixties.

47. *Chinese restaurant staple WONTON SOUP (giving “won’t”)
A wonton is a dumpling used in Chinese cooking. Wontons are often boiled and served in a wonton soup.

51. Broad bean FAVA
Fava bean is an alternative name for the broad bean.

52. Brief writer: Abbr. ATT
Attorney (att.)

53. Pal of Piglet ROO
Like most of the characters in A. A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh”, Roo was inspired by on a stuffed toy belonging to Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne.

55. Movement-sensing game console WII
The remote controls included with the Wii gaming system have built-in accelerometers and infrared detection enabling the gamer to control the system using physical gestures. As result, the controllers come with straps to attach them to the wrist, otherwise there’s a danger they will fly around the room is a gamer accidentally let’s go of a controller as he or she bowls, swings or punches etc.

60. Clark’s “Mogambo” co-star AVA
Ava Gardner is noted for her association with some big movies, but also for her association with some big names when it came to the men in her life. In the world of film, she appeared in the likes of “Mogambo” (1953), “On the Beach” (1959), “The Night of the Iguana” (1964) and “Earthquake” (1974). The men in her life included husbands Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra. After her marriages had failed (and perhaps before!) she had long term relationships with Howard Hughes and bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin whom she met through her friend Ernest Hemingway.

“Mogambo” is a 1953 film noted for its spectacular scenes set in the African jungle. “Mogambo” is actually a remake of a 1932 movie called “Red Dust”. Gable plays the romantic lead in both the original and the remake, even though they are filmed 21 years apart. Gable gets involved with Jean Harlow and Mary Astor in the original, and with a Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly in the remake.

61. Like some elephants ASIATIC
There are only three species of elephant living today, with all others being extinct. These are the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant (or “Indian elephant”). As is well known, the African elephant is distinguished from the Asian/Indian elephant by its much larger ears.

62. Musician Sean Taro __ Lennon ONO
Sean Taro Ono Lennon is the only child of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Sean’s godfather is Elton John. Sean is a musician and composer, and has a band called the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger.

63. Intense hunger YEN
The word “yen”, meaning “urge”, has been around in English since the very early 1900s. It comes from the earlier word “yin” imported from Chinese, which was used in English to describe an intense craving for opium!

64. Sand dollar habitats SEABEDS
A sand dollar is a burrowing sea urchin found just below the low water line of sandy or muddy beaches. Sand dollars have a hard skeleton, which is often found washed up on beaches. The name “sand dollar” was given as the skeletons of dead individuals was ashore and are often bleached white by the sun giving them the appearance of a large silver coin.

65. Web NET
The World Wide Web was effectively the invention of English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. The key to Berner-Lee’s invention was bringing together two technologies that already existed: hypertext and the Internet. I for one am very grateful …

Down
1. Company that now owns Dewar’s, Bombay Sapphire and Grey Goose BACARDI
The Bacardi company is still family-owned and operated, and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. The company was founded in Santiago de Cuba and became successful by selling a refined form of rum, something new to a market that was used to a crude dark rum. The Bacardi family opposed the Castro regime as it came to power, so the company had to relocate to Bermuda.

5. “2001” computer HAL
In Arthur C. Clarke’s “Space Odyssey” (famously adapted for the big screen as “2001: A Space Odyssey”) the computer system that went rogue was called HAL 9000, or simply “HAL”. HAL stands for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer.

6. Galeón cargo ORO
In Spanish, a galleon (galeón) might carry gold (oro).

7. Braz. neighbor URU
The official name of Uruguay is the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, reflecting the countries location on the eastern coast of South America. It is a relatively small country, the second smallest on the continent, after Suriname. In 2009, Uruguay became the first country in the world to provide a free laptop and Internet access to every child. Now there’s a thought …

11. Some Clue cards WEAPONS
Clue is another board game that we knew under a different name growing up in Ireland. Outside of North America, Clue is marketed as “Cluedo”. Cluedo was the original name of the game, introduced in 1949 by the famous British board game manufacturer Waddingtons. There are cute differences between the US and UK versions. For example, the man who is murdered is called Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy in the US), one of the suspects is the Reverend Green (Mr. Green in the US), and the suspect weapons include a dagger (a knife in the US), a lead pipe (lead piping in the US) and a spanner (a wrench in the US). I think it’s a fabulous game, a must during the holidays …

24. Broadway attractions SHOWS
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.

26. “Jeopardy!” monitor display: Abbr. ANS
The word is that Alex Trebek will step down as host of the game show “Jeopardy” in 2016, when his current contract expires. The list of names mentioned to replace Trebek includes Brian Williams, Dan Patrick, Matt Lauer and Anderson Cooper. I vote for Cooper, but I can’t see him taking the job …

27. “One L” author TUROW
While “One L” is a name used in general for first year law students, “One L” is also the title of an autobiographical narrative by author Scott Turow, telling of his experiences as a first year student at Harvard Law School.

32. “__ down to the seas again”: Masefield I MUST
John Masefield was an English poet and author, and the UK’s Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Masefield’s most famous poem is “Sea-Fever”, first published in 1902:

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face and a grey dawn breaking.

34. Turner and others IKES
Ike and Tina Turner were together as a husband/wife duo recording music for 16 years in the sixties and seventies. Ike and Tina’s biggest hit has to be “Proud Mary”, released in 1971. The partnership ended, along with their marriage, in the late seventies with Tina making accusations of abuse by her drug-addicted husband.

39. Blue-flowering plant used in herbal medicine GENTIAN
Gentiana is a genus of plants that is noted for having large flowers that are often and intense shade of blue. Gentian root is used as a flavoring for the common cocktail flavoring called “bitters”.

42. Potential dupe LIVE ONE
A dupe is someone who is easily fooled, a “live one”, one who is easily the victim of deception.

48. SeaWorld swimmers ORCAS
The taxonomic name for the killer whale is Orcinus orca. The use of the name “orca”, rather than “killer whale”, is becoming more and more common. The Latin word “Orcinus” means “belonging to Orcus”, with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.

SeaWorld was started in San Diego in 1964. The original plan was build an underwater restaurant with a marine life show. Eventually the founders dropped the idea of the eating establishment and just went with a theme park. SeaWorld has been mired in controversy since the 2013 release of the documentary “Blackfish”, which tells of the involvement of a particular killer whale in the death of two SeaWorld employees and one SeaWorld visitor.

49. Lariat loop NOOSE
Our word “lariat” meaning “lasso” comes from the Spanish “la reata” meaning “the rope”.

50. Colleague of Elena and Antonin SONIA
Sonia Sotomayor is the first Hispanic justice on the US Supreme Court, and the third female justice. Sotomayor was nominated by President Barack Obama to replace the retiring Justice David Souter.

Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States who replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the fourth female US Supreme Court justice (there have been 108 men!). I hear she is a fan of Jane Austen, and used to reread “Pride and Prejudice” once a year. Not a bad thing to do, I’d say …

Antonin Scalia was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Reagan in 1986, and is now the longest serving member of the court. Justice Scalia’s minority opinions are known for the scathing language that he uses to criticize the Court’s majority.

54. Secretly keeps in the email loop, briefly BCCS
A blind carbon copy (bcc) is a copy of a document or message that is sent to someone without other recipients of the message knowing about that extra copy.

I wonder do the kids of today know that “cc” stands for carbon copy, and do they have any idea what a carbon copy was? Do you remember how messy carbon paper was to handle?

57. Computer key TAB
Like most features on our computer keyboards, the tab key is a hangover from the days of typewriters. When using a typewriter, making entries into a table was very tedious as it involved lots of tapping on the spacebar and backspace key. So, a lever was added to typewriters that allowed the operator to “jump” across the page to positions that could be set by hand. Later this was simplified to a tab key, which could be depressed causing the carriage to jump to the next tab stop in much the same way that the modern tab key works on a computer.

58. Short shortcut? RTE
A shortcut is a route, and “rte.” is short for “route”.

59. Samaritan’s offering AID
“The Good Samaritan” is a parable told by Jesus that can be read in the Gospel of Luke. According to the story, a Jewish traveler is robbed, beaten and left for dead at the side of the road. A priest happens by and sees the poor man, but does not stop to help. A fellow Jew also passes and refuses to help. A third man stops and gives aid. This kind person is a Samaritan, a native of Samaria. Back then Jewish and Samaritan people were said to generally despise each other, and yet here a detested creature gives aid. Jesus told to the story to a self-righteous lawyer, the intent being (I assume) to shake up his self-righteousness.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Towering BIG
4. Give quite the earful SHOUT AT
11. Woody Allen asset WIT
14. Soul, in Somme AME
15. City that was the source of the marble for Michelangelo’s “David” CARRARA
16. Squeeze (out) EKE
17. *Sweet melons CANTALOUPES (giving “can’t”)
19. Taylor of fashion ANN
20. Behind AFTER
21. CD return INT
22. Princess provoker PEA
23. Agile deer ROES
24. *Ramshackle community SHANTY TOWN (giving “shan’t)
28. Forest mom DOE
29. Kublai __ KHAN
30. Hand or foot UNIT
31. *The Prairie State ILLINOIS (giving “I’ll”)
33. Some words in baby books? FIRSTS
35. Kitten cry MEWL
36. Warm-water shark MAKO
37. Smooth moves SEGUES
40. *Horror film shapeshifter WEREWOLF (giving “we’re”)
44. “Rag Mop” singing brothers AMES
45. Burden ONUS
46. Go (for) VIE
47. *Chinese restaurant staple WONTON SOUP (giving “won’t”)
51. Broad bean FAVA
52. Brief writer: Abbr. ATT
53. Pal of Piglet ROO
54. One with a muzzle, maybe BITER
55. Movement-sensing game console WII
56. Beginning of labor, and, in another sense, the beginning of each answer to a starred clue CONTRACTION
60. Clark’s “Mogambo” co-star AVA
61. Like some elephants ASIATIC
62. Musician Sean Taro __ Lennon ONO
63. Intense hunger YEN
64. Sand dollar habitats SEABEDS
65. Web NET

Down
1. Company that now owns Dewar’s, Bombay Sapphire and Grey Goose BACARDI
2. “Stupid me!” I’M A FOOL!
3. Well-mannered GENTEEL
4. Swordplay memento SCAR
5. “2001” computer HAL
6. Galeón cargo ORO
7. Braz. neighbor URU
8. Easy putt TAP IN
9. “__ you ready yet?” AREN’T
10. Lip-smacking TASTY
11. Some Clue cards WEAPONS
12. “My suspicions are confirmed!” I KNEW IT!
13. Building group TENANTS
18. Your, to Pierre TES
24. Broadway attractions SHOWS
25. It comes down hard HAIL
26. “Jeopardy!” monitor display: Abbr. ANS
27. “One L” author TUROW
29. Often-torn trouser part KNEE
32. “__ down to the seas again”: Masefield I MUST
33. At a great height FAR UP
34. Turner and others IKES
36. Remote button MENU
37. Figured out how SAW A WAY
38. Producing intense feeling EMOTIVE
39. Blue-flowering plant used in herbal medicine GENTIAN
40. Try to persuade WOO
41. Show of hands? OVATION
42. Potential dupe LIVE ONE
43. Biblical words of comfort FEAR NOT
48. SeaWorld swimmers ORCAS
49. Lariat loop NOOSE
50. Colleague of Elena and Antonin SONIA
51. Hale and hearty FIT
54. Secretly keeps in the email loop, briefly BCCS
57. Computer key TAB
58. Short shortcut? RTE
59. Samaritan’s offering AID

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4 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 2 Jan 14, Thursday”

  1. Hi Bill and Bpark62.
    Horror film shape-shifter….
    THE BLOB!!
    Only saw CAN'T SHAN'T and WON'T.
    Missed I'LL and WE'RE.
    But… I finished this one after changing MEWs to MEWL.
    Comes down hard? HAIs???? Whaa?
    And Seagram fit before BACARDI.
    OK, 1 for 2 in 2014.
    Yeah, I though "GO" was missing too.

  2. Hi there, Pookie.

    Even though I don't do horror films, my first thought for that shape-shifter was the "The Blob" too.

    1 for 2 so far, meaning 364 for 365 is on the cards, Pookie 🙂

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