LA Times Crossword Answers 10 Oct 14, Friday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Dressage gear CROP
A riding crop is a type of whip, one without a long lash.

9. Repel, with “off” STAVE
The word “stave” was originally the plural of “staff”, a wooden rod. To “stave off” originated with the concept of holding off with a staff. In the world of barrel-making, a stave is a narrow strip of wood that forms part of a barrel’s sides.

14. Member of a ’60s quartet PAPA
A folk group called the Magic Circle renamed itself to the Mamas and the Papas in the early sixties. Sadly, the Mamas and the Papas weren’t a happy bunch, always fighting over who was getting credit for songs and whose voice was getting mixed out of recordings, so they split up, twice. While they were together though, they wrote and recorded some great songs, songs which really do epitomize the sound of the sixties. “Monday, Monday” was written by John Phillips, one of “the Papas”, and it was to become the only number one hit for the group. Here’s a shocker … when it hit number one in 1966, it was the first time that a group made up of both sexes topped the American charts!

15. Competitive blade EPEE
The épée that is used in today’s sport fencing is derived from the old French dueling sword. In fact, the the sport of épée fencing is very similar to the dualing of the 19th century. The word “épée” translates from French as “sword”.

16. Projecting window ORIEL
An oriel window is a bay window that projects from a wall, but does not reach all the way to the ground.

19. Best-dressed goal? NINES
The term “to the nines” means “to perfection”. The first person to use the term in literature was Robbie Burns. Apparently the idea behind the use of “nines” is figurative (pun!), with the number nine considered “ideal” as it is arrived at by multiplying three by three.

22. Agnus __ DEI
“Agnus Dei” is Latin for “Lamb of God”, a term used in Christian faiths for Jesus Christ, symbolizing His role as a sacrificial offering to atone for the sins of man.

23. Film dog’s first name? RIN
The original Rin Tin Tin was a real-life dog, a puppy discovered by a GI in a bombed-out kennel in France during WWI. The soldier named the pup Rin Tin Tin, the same name as a puppet given to American soldiers for luck. On returning to the US, “Rinty” was trained by his owner and was spotted doing tricks by a film producer. Rinty featured in some films, eventually getting his first starring role in 1923 in the silent movie “Where the North Begins”. Legend has it that this first Rin Tin Tin died in the arms of actress Jean Harlow. Not a bad way to go …

31. “A little __ the mightiest Julius fell”: Horatio ERE
In William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, Horatio and Bernardo have just seen a ghost. Horatio remarks that such a vision is akin to the story that dead people left their graves and walked around the streets of Rome just before Julius Caesar was assassinated.
In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.

32. Rocket retired in 2011 YAO
Yao Ming is a retired professional basketball player from Shanghai who played for the Houston Rockets. At 7’6″, Yao was the tallest man playing in the NBA, and today is one of the the tallest people alive.

33. Cry for help MAYDAY
The term “Mayday” is an emergency codeword that is used internationally as a distress signal, especially when making a radio transmission. “Mayday” comes from the French phrase “venez m’aider” meaning “come to help me”. When used properly, the term is repeated three times in a row: “Mayday Mayday Mayday”.

35. “The Scream” artist MUNCH
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian expressionist, most famous for his painting “The Scream”, painted in 1893. What a wonderful work that is, a true representation of expressionism. The Munch Museum in Oslo is dedicated to his work and life. In 2004, two of Munch’s paintings, “The Scream” and “Madonna”, were stolen from the Munch Museum by armed robbers who subdued the museum guards. The paintings were missing for two years, but recovered in 2006.

45. Org. with an elephant in its logo GOP
The Republican Party has had the nickname Grand Old Party (GOP) since 1875. That said, the phrase was coined in the “Congressional Record” as “this gallant old party”. The moniker was changed to “grand old party” in 1876 in an article in the “Cincinnati Commercial”.

The Republican Party’s elephant mascot dates back to an 1874 cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast for “Harper’s Weekly”. The Democrat’s donkey was already an established symbol. Nast drew a donkey clothed in a lion’s skin scaring away the other animals. One of the scared animals was an elephant, which Nast labeled “The Republican Vote”.

50. “No more seats” letters SRO
Standing room only (SRO)

51. Cross shape TAU
Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, the letter which gave rise to our Roman “T”. Both the letters tau (T) and chi (X) have long been symbolically associated with the cross.

60. Small songbird VIREO
Vireos are pretty little birds native to the New World. Vireos’ wings and bodies are mostly grey, but their head and throats are often a lovely olive green.

67. Stout grain MALT
The term “stout” was first used for a type of beer in the 1600s when was used to describe a “strong, stout” brew, and not necessarily a dark beer as it is today.

Down
1. USN rank CPO
A Chief Petty Officer (CPO) is a non-commissioned officer in the Navy and Coast Guard. The “Petty” is derived from the French word “petit” meaning “small”.

2. Sitar master Shankar RAVI
Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous virtuoso (to us Westerners) from the world of Indian classical music, and was noted for his sitar playing. Also, Shankar was the father of the beautiful pop singer Norah Jones.

3. Gp. that includes Venezuela OPEC
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded in 1960 at a conference held in Baghdad, Iraq that was attended by Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Nine more countries joined the alliance soon after, and OPEC set up headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and then Vienna, Austria in 1965. The basic aim of OPEC was to wrench control of oil prices from the oil companies and to put it in the hands of the sovereign states that own the natural resource.

5. Ed who was the longtime voice of Kraft Foods HERLIHY
Ed Herlihy was a radio and television announcer, and the newsreel narrator for Universal-International. Herlihy also voiced radio and TV ads for Kraft cheese for almost 40 years until the 1980s.

6. FaceTime device IPAD
FaceTime is an Apple videotelephony application. I guess it’s similar to Skype …

8. Nissan model SENTRA
The Nissan Sentra is sold as the Nissan Sunny back in Japan.

9. Duke of Albany, to Lear SON-IN-LAW
In Shakespeare’s “King Lear”, the king’s daughter Goneril is married to the Duke of Albany.

10. Subj. with many functions TRIG
The most familiar trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent. Each of these is a ratio, a ratio of two sides of a right-angled triangle. The reciprocal of these three functions are secant, cosecant and cotangent. The reciprocal functions are simply the inverted ratios, the inverted sine, cosine and tangent.

11. Indigenous Japanese AINU
The Ainu people are an indigenous race found primarily in Japan and parts of Russia close to Japan. The spoken Ainu language has nearly died out, with only a handful of native speakers alive today.

18. Righteous Brothers hit, e.g. DUET
The Righteous Brothers were singing act, a duo formed by Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield in the sixties. The pair were singing as part of a five-member group called the Paramours when someone in the audience yelled out, “That was righteous, brothers!”. When Medley and Hatfield formed their own act, that remark gave them their name.

28. River to the Severn WYE
The River Wye forms much of the border between England and Wales. It is the fifth longest river in the UK.

The River Severn is the longest river in the UK (the Thames is second). The Severn rises in the Cambrian Mountains in the center of Wales and empties into the Bristol Channel at the Severn Estuary.

31. Flightless zoo bird EMU
The emu has had a tough time in Australia since man settled there. There was even an “Emu War” in Western Australia in 1932 when migrating emus competed with livestock for water and food. Soldiers were sent in and used machine guns in an unsuccessful attempt to drive off the “invading force”. The emus were clever, breaking their usual formations and adopting guerrilla tactics, operating as smaller units. After 50 days of “war”, the military withdrew. Subsequent requests for military help for the farmers were ignored. The emus had emerged victorious …

36. “M*A*S*H” set piece COT
The first Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) was deployed in August 1945. MASH units really came into the public consciousness after publication of the 1969 Richard Hooker novel “MASH”, which spawned the hit film and TV series that were both called “M*A*S*H”.

42. Old Italian capital LIRE
The word “lira” is used in a number of countries for currency. “Lira” comes from the Latin for “pound” and is derived from a British pound sterling, the value of a Troy pound of silver. For example, the lira (plural “lire”) was the official currency of Italy before the country changed over to the euro in 2002.

53. 1492 caravel NINA
The ship used by Christopher Columbus that we know as the Niña was actually the nickname of a ship actually called the Santa Clara. The nickname “Niña” probably came from the name of her owner, Juan Niña of Moguer.

A caravel was a Portuguese ship that was small and very maneuverable. Caravels had triangular lateen-rigged sails which allowed them to sail quite close to the wind. Caravels were indeed quite small, only accommodating a crew of twenty or so sailors. Christopher Columbus’s Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria were all caravels.

55. Gull-like bird TERN
Terns are seabirds that are found all over the world. The Arctic Tern makes a very long-distance migration. One Arctic Tern that was tagged as a chick in Great Britain in the summer of 1982, was spotted in Melbourne, Australia just three months later. The bird had traveled over 14,000 miles in over those three months, an average of about 150 miles a day. Remarkable …

56. Pelvic bones ILIA
The sacrum and the two ilia are three bones in the human pelvis.

58. Fast-spreading Internet phenomenon MEME
A “meme” (short for “mineme”) is a cultural practice or idea that is passed on verbally or by repetition from one person to another. The term lends itself very well to the online world where links, emails, files etc. are so easily propagated.

59. Nordegren who married Tiger Woods in 2004 ELIN
Elin Nordegren is the ex-wife of Tiger Woods. Nordegren is a native of Sweden, and it was back in Sweden that she was hired as a nanny by the wife of golfer Jesper Parnevik. The job brought her to the US where she became a popular attraction on the professional golfing circuit. Apparently there was a long line of single golfers who wanted to be introduced to her, with Tiger Woods asking for an introduction for a year before he finally got to go out with her. The pair were married in 2004, and divorced in 2010.

62. Flight board abbr. ETD
Estimated time of departure (ETD)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Dressage gear CROP
5. Sound of warning HISS
9. Repel, with “off” STAVE
14. Member of a ’60s quartet PAPA
15. Competitive blade EPEE
16. Projecting window ORIEL
17. Like an insufficient account OVERDRAWN
19. Best-dressed goal? NINES
20. Start of an optical illusion quip I COULDN’T FIGURE
22. Agnus __ DEI
23. Film dog’s first name? RIN
24. Quip, part 2 WHY THE BALL WAS
31. “A little __ the mightiest Julius fell”: Horatio ERE
32. Rocket retired in 2011 YAO
33. Cry for help MAYDAY
35. “The Scream” artist MUNCH
38. One in a cage RIB
40. Drive erratically WEAVE
41. Like the thing not to do UNCOOL
43. Zip NIL
45. Org. with an elephant in its logo GOP
46. Quip, part 3 GETTING BIGGER
50. “No more seats” letters SRO
51. Cross shape TAU
52. End of the quip AND THEN IT HIT ME
60. Small songbird VIREO
61. Customers CLIENTELE
63. Not showing much life INERT
64. Masseur’s selection OILS
65. Project EMIT
66. New beginnings DAWNS
67. Stout grain MALT
68. Rip violently REND

Down
1. USN rank CPO
2. Sitar master Shankar RAVI
3. Gp. that includes Venezuela OPEC
4. Ridicule PARODY
5. Ed who was the longtime voice of Kraft Foods HERLIHY
6. FaceTime device IPAD
7. Needled? SEWN
8. Nissan model SENTRA
9. Duke of Albany, to Lear SON-IN-LAW
10. Subj. with many functions TRIG
11. Indigenous Japanese AINU
12. Avoid a suddenly stopped car, say VEER
13. End of a threat ELSE
18. Righteous Brothers hit, e.g. DUET
21. Record, in a way FILM
24. Squeezed WRUNG
25. From now HENCE
26. Spot for a stud EAR
27. Spring sound BOING!
28. River to the Severn WYE
29. Saw ADAGE
30. Relish SAVOR
31. Flightless zoo bird EMU
34. “Okey-doke!” YEP!
36. “M*A*S*H” set piece COT
37. Up-and-comers with egos HOTSHOTS
39. Catcher behind a plate? BIB
42. Old Italian capital LIRE
44. Most supple LITHEST
47. 1-Down, for one NONCOM
48. Profit GAIN
49. Water catcher GUTTER
52. Enthusiastic AVID
53. 1492 caravel NINA
54. Took from the deck DREW
55. Gull-like bird TERN
56. Pelvic bones ILIA
57. Spot for ten-spots TILL
58. Fast-spreading Internet phenomenon MEME
59. Nordegren who married Tiger Woods in 2004 ELIN
62. Flight board abbr. ETD

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