LA Times Crossword Answers 14 Nov 14, Friday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Steve Salmon
THEME: Wrong Answer … each of today’s themed answers is a common mis(s)pelling:

17A. Making flush EMBARASSING (should be “embarrassing”)
24A. Pushy AGRESSIVE (should be “aggressive”)
32A. Feature of some jellyfish FLORESCENCE (should be “fluorescence”)
46A. Administration GOVERMENT (should be “government”)
52A. This puzzle’s five longest answers are common ones MISPELLINGS (should be “misspellings”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 10m 01s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

5. Colored part of the iris AREOLA
An areola (sometimes “areole”) in anatomy is a small ring of color, as in the areola surrounding the nipple, and the areola surrounding the pupil of the eye. “Areola” comes from Latin, meaning “small open space”, and is a diminutive of the Latin word “area”, meaning “open space”.

11. Fold call BAA!
A “fold” is an enclosure for sheep, or an alternative name for a “flock”.

14. Ho Chi __ MINH
Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese Communist leader who was president of North Vietnam from 1945 to 1969. Ho Chi Minh traveled widely in his earlier years. From 1912 to 1918 he actually lived in the US, in New York and Boston. While in America, he held down several jobs including working as a baker in the Parker House Hotel in Boston, and as a line manager for General Motors.

15. Caribbean stopover NASSAU
Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, used to be called Charles Town. After having been burnt to the ground by the Spanish in 1684, it was rebuilt and named Nassau in honor of King William III of England, a Dutchman from the House of Orange-Nassau (aka William of Orange). Nassau is a favored location for the James Bond series of movies. The city and surroundings feature in “Thunderball”, “Never Say Never Again”, “Casino Royale” and “For Your Eyes Only”.

16. Munic. official ALD
The term “alderman” comes from English law, and is used for a member of a municipal assembly or council. In some locations in the US some cities have a Board of Aldermen instead of a city council.

19. Army E-5, e.g. NCO
An NCO is a non-commissioned officer in the armed forces. Usually such an officer is one who has earned his or her rank by promotion through the enlisted ranks. A good example would be a sergeant.

21. Country named for its location ECUADOR
“Ecuador” is the Spanish word for “equator”, which gives the country its name.

27. Son, to Sartre FILS
Jean-Paul Sartre was a leading French philosopher, as well as a writer and political activist. Sartre was one of the few people to have been awarded a Nobel Prize and to have then refused to accept it. He was named winner of the prize for Literature in 1964, for his first novel “Nausea”. Before his win, Sartre knew that his name was on the list of nominees so he wrote to the Nobel Institute and asked to be withdrawn from consideration. The letter somehow went unread, so he found himself having to refuse the award after he had been selected.

28. London gallery TATE
The museum known as “the Tate” is actually made up of four separate galleries in England. The original Tate gallery was founded by Sir Henry Tate as the National Gallery of British Art. It is located on Millbank in London, on the site of the old Millbank Prison, and is now called Tate Britain. There is also the Tate Liverpool in the north of England located in an old warehouse, and the Tate St. Ives in the west country located in an old gas works. My favorite of the Tate galleries is the Tate Modern which lies on the banks of the Thames in London. It’s a beautiful building, a converted power station that you have to see to believe.

29. Obit bit BIO
“Obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”, originally the record of the death of a person, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

30. Exiled Amin IDI
Idi Amin received most of his military training in the British armed forces, eventually achieving the highest rank possible for a Black African in the British Colonial Army in 1959, that of Warrant Officer. On his return to Uganda Amin joined his country’s military and quickly rose to the rank of Deputy Commander of the Army. During that time he was quite the athlete. He was a noted rugby player and swimmer, and for nine years held the Ugandan national light-heavyweight boxing title. By the early seventies, Amin was commander of all the armed forces of Uganda and in 1971 seized power in a military coup, displacing the country’s president Milton Obote. There followed seven years of brutal rule by Amin during which it is estimated that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were murdered. Amin was ousted from power in 1979 after a war with Tanzania, and fled to Libya where he stayed for a year. He then moved to Saudi Arabia, where he was financially supported by the Saudi Royal Family for the remainder of his life. Amin died in 2003.

39. Thanksgiving staple YAM
Although in the US we sometimes refer to sweet potatoes as “yams”, the yam is actually a completely different family of plants. True yams are more common in other parts of the the world than they are in this country, and are especially found in Africa.

48. Selling points MALLS
Surprisingly, our word “mall”, meaning “shady walk” or “enclosed shopping space”, comes from the Italian for “mallet”. All of our shopping-style malls are named for “The Mall” in St. James’s Park in London. This tree-lined promenade was so called as it used to a famous spot to play the croquet-like game called “pall-mall”. The game derived its name from the Italian for ball (palla) and mallet “maglio”. The London thoroughfare called the Mall still exists, at one end of which is Buckingham Palace. Indeed, parallel to the Mall is a street called Pall Mall.

50. Willies-causing EERIE
A “fit of the willies” is a spell of nervousness. The expression is probably a derivative of “the woollies”, a colloquial expression for “nervous” likely to be a reference to itchiness caused by wool garments.

56. Island loop LEI
“Lei” is the Hawaiian word for “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a “lei” is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

57. Pre-WWII pope PIUS XI
Pope Pius XI was head of the Roman Catholic Church from 1857 to 1939. It was Pope Pius XI who signed the Lateran Treaties with the Italian government led by Benito Mussolini. These treaties established Vatican City as a sovereign state and independent nation located within Rome.

58. Adopted great-nephew of Claudius NERO
The Roman emperor Nero had quite the family life. When Nero was just 16-years-old he married his stepsister, Claudia Octavia. He also had his mother and step-brother executed.

I find Claudius to be the most fascinating of all the Roman Emperors. Claudius had a lot going against him as he walked with a limp and was slightly deaf. He was put in office by the Praetorian Guard (the emperor’s bodyguards) after Caligula was assassinated. Claudius had very little political experience and yet proved to be very forward-thinking and capable.

59. Initials seen at Indy STP
STP is a brand name for automotive lubricants and additives. The name STP comes from “Scientifically Treated Petroleum”.

61. Expected 2015 MLB returnee A-ROD
Poor old Alex Rodriguez earned more nicknames than just A-Rod. He has been called “the Cooler” by some players as there is a perception that teams go cold when he joins them and hot when he leaves. He has also been called “A-Fraud” by teammates because of another perception, that he is over-demanding. Rodriguez now seems to be in a world of hurt for using illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

Down
1. __ Zion Church AME
The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church was founded in 1816 in Philadelphia.

2. Symphonic set TIMPANI
The timpani are also called the kettledrums. “Timpani” is an Italian term with the same meaning as in English, the plural of “timpano”.

5. Literary collections ANAS
An ana (plural “anas”) is a collection, perhaps of literature, that represents the character of a particular place or a person. Ana can be used as a noun or as a suffix (e.g. Americana).

6. Dorm minders, for short RAS
RAs are resident assistants or resident advisers, the peer leaders found in residence halls, particularly on a college campus.

7. Sicilian capital? ESS
There is a capital letter S (ess) at the start of the word “Sicilian”.

8. Willows for wickerwork OSIERS
Most willows (trees and shrubs of the genus Salix) are called just that, willows. Some of the broad-leaved shrub varieties are called sallow, and the narrow-leaved shrubs are called osier. The variety known as osier is commonly used in basketry, as osier twigs are very flexible.

9. Camelot weapon LANCE
Camelot is featured in Arthurian legend, as King Arthur’s castle and his court.

10. Like the works of Virgil and Horace AUGUSTAN
The Augustan Age was a period in ancient Rome during which Caesar Augustus was emperor. It is regarded as the golden age of Latin literature.

Publius Vergilius Maro (better known as Virgil) was a poet from Ancient Rome. Virgil’s best known works are:

– The “Eclogues” (or Bucolics)
– The “Georgics”
– The “Aeneid”

One of Ancient Rome’s leading lyric poets was Quintus Horatius Flaccus, or “Horace” as we tend to know him.

18. Attorney’s thing RES
“Res” is the Latin for “thing”. “Res” is used in a lot of phrases in the law.

23. Jacob, to Esau, for short SIB
Sibling (sib)

Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother Rebekah gave birth to the twins “the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)”. As Esau was the first born, he was entitled to inherit his father’s wealth (it was his “birthright”). Instead, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a “mess of pottage” (a meal of lentils).

24. Hill helper AIDE
The United States Capitol is home to the US Congress, and sits on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. It was Pierre Charles L’Enfant who laid out the nation’s new capital city. L’Enfant’s plans called for a “Congress House” as home for the legislative branch of the government. It was Thomas Jefferson who insisted that the name be changed to “Capitol”.

27. Douglas and others FIRS
Various species of Douglas fir are native to North and Central America, and to Asia. The tree gets its name from the Scottish botanist David Douglas, who introduced the species into Europe.

31. Sediment LEES
The dregs in wine, the sediment that settles during fermentation (and sometimes in the bottle), is also called “lees”.

33. “__ Little Ironies”: Thomas Hardy collection LIFE’S
“Life’s Little Ironies” is a collection of tales by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1894.

Thomas Hardy was a novelist and poet from Dorset in England. Hardy thought of himself mainly as a poet, but he is best remembered for some very fine novels, such as “Far from the Madding Crowd”, “The Mayor of Casterbridge”, “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and “Jude the Obscure”.

36. Goth makeup EYELINER
The goth subculture developed from the gothic rock scene in the early eighties, and is a derivative of the punk music movement. It started in England and spread to many countries around the globe. The term “goth” of course comes from the Eastern Germanic tribe called the Goths. Frankly, I don’t understand the whole goth thing …

40. Score direction ALLEGRO
The tempo of a piece of music is usually designated with an Italian word on the score. For example, “grave” is slow and solemn, “andante” is at a walking pace, and “allegro” is fast, quickly and bright.

41. HMO group MDS
A medical doctor (MD) might work for a health maintenance organization (HMO).

42. City SW of Chicago JOLIET
Joliet is the fastest-growing city in the state of Illinois. It is located only 40 miles southwest of Chicago. The original village of “Juliet” was established in 1834, and this name was like a corruption of “Jolliet”, after the French Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet. Juliet was renamed to Joliet in 1845.

43. ICU hookup IV DRIP
One might see intravenous drips (IVs) in an intensive care unit (ICU).

48. Harris of “thirtysomething” MEL
Mel Harris is an actress from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Harris is perhaps best known as Hope Murdoch Steadman from the eighties TV show “thirtysomething”. Before she made it as an actress, Harris twice appeared as a contestant on the “Pyramid” game show on television. In 1991 she made a third appearance on the show, only this time as a celebrity player.

50. Tiger’s ex 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.

53. Ltr. afterthoughts PSS
One adds a PS (post scriptum, or simply “postscript”) at the end of a letter. A second postscript is a post post scriptum, a PPS.

55. Astrodome field’s lack SOD
AstroTurf is the trademarked name of an artificial playing surface suitable for many ball sports. AstroTurf was invented in 1965 and originally went on the market as ChemGrass. The first really big application was in 1996 in the Houston Astrodome, so the name “AstroTurf” was applied and has remained ever since.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Arguing AT IT
5. Colored part of the iris AREOLA
11. Fold call BAA!
14. Ho Chi __ MINH
15. Caribbean stopover NASSAU
16. Munic. official ALD
17. Making flush EMBARASSING (should be “embarrassing”)
19. Army E-5, e.g. NCO
20. You can usually see right through them PANES
21. Country named for its location ECUADOR
23. Picnic contest gear SACKS
24. Pushy AGRESSIVE (should be “aggressive”)
26. Signs INKS
27. Son, to Sartre FILS
28. London gallery TATE
29. Obit bit BIO
30. Exiled Amin IDI
31. Test area LAB
32. Feature of some jellyfish FLORESCENCE (should be “fluorescence”)
37. Things to consider IFS
38. Golf club part TOE
39. Thanksgiving staple YAM
42. Instant JIFF
44. Suffix indicating absence -LESS
45. Blend MELD
46. Administration GOVERMENT (should be “government”)
48. Selling points MALLS
49. Seasoned seaman OLD SALT
50. Willies-causing EERIE
51. Broadcast AIR
52. This puzzle’s five longest answers are common ones MISPELLINGS (should be “misspellings”)
56. Island loop LEI
57. Pre-WWII pope PIUS XI
58. Adopted great-nephew of Claudius NERO
59. Initials seen at Indy STP
60. Drinks daintily SIPS ON
61. Expected 2015 MLB returnee A-ROD

Down
1. __ Zion Church AME
2. Symphonic set TIMPANI
3. Behind IN BACK OF
4. Response to a helper THANKS
5. Literary collections ANAS
6. Dorm minders, for short RAS
7. Sicilian capital? ESS
8. Willows for wickerwork OSIERS
9. Camelot weapon LANCE
10. Like the works of Virgil and Horace AUGUSTAN
11. Crook BANDIT
12. Nook ALCOVE
13. Worship ADORE
18. Attorney’s thing RES
22. Easy __ AS ABC
23. Jacob, to Esau, for short SIB
24. Hill helper AIDE
25. What icicles do in the sun GLISTEN
27. Douglas and others FIRS
31. Sediment LEES
33. “__ Little Ironies”: Thomas Hardy collection LIFE’S
34. Some exits OFF-RAMPS
35. Run to COST
36. Goth makeup EYELINER
40. Score direction ALLEGRO
41. HMO group MDS
42. City SW of Chicago JOLIET
43. ICU hookup IV DRIP
44. Eases LETS UP
45. Place with berth rights MARINA
46. Shootout successes GOALS
47. Mid-11th-century year MLIII
48. Harris of “thirtysomething” MEL
50. Tiger’s ex ELIN
53. Ltr. afterthoughts PSS
54. Outside: Pref. EXO-
55. Astrodome field’s lack SOD

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