LA Times Crossword Answers 5 Nov 14, Wednesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Gareth Bain
THEME: Scrambled Eggs … each of today’s themed answers contains an anagram of the word OVA (Latin for “eggs”), shown by the circled letters in the grid:

54A. Breakfast serving, and a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters SCRAMBLED EGGS

20A. *”The Sound of Music” heroine MARIA VON TRAPP
33A. *Common Italian restaurant fixture PIZZA OVEN
44A. *Completely in vain TO NO AVAIL

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 10m 39s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Desert partly in northern China GOBI
The large desert in Asia called the Gobi lies in northern China and southern Mongolia. The Gobi desert is growing at an alarming rate, particularly towards the south. This “desertification” is caused by increased human activity. The Chinese government is trying to halt the desert’s progress by planting great swaths of new forest, the so called “Green Wall of China”.

14. Air or Mini IPAD
The iPad Air is Apple’s 5th-generation table computer. The Air is just 7.5 mm thick, and is 22% lighter than the iPad 2.

The iPad mini is line of smaller iPads that was introduced by Apple in 2012. The iPad mini has a screen size of 7.9 inches, whereas the regular iPad’s screen is 9.7 inches.

15. Capital on a fjord OSLO
Oslo, the capital of Norway, is an ancient city that was founded around 1048. The medieval city was destroyed by fire in 1624 and was rebuilt by the Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV and renamed to Christiana. In 1877 there was an official change of the spelling of the city’s name to “Kristiana”, and then more recently in 1925 the name was restored to the original Oslo. Things have almost gone full circle and now the center of Oslo, the area that would have been contained by the original medieval walls, has apparently been renamed to Christiana.

A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, both formed as sea level rises. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

16. Union Pacific Railroad headquarters OMAHA
The Union Pacific Railroad is the largest railroad in the US. Union Pacific operates over 8,000 locomotives, and all of that rolling stock operates west of Chicago and New Orleans. The company’s headquarters are in Omaha, Nebraska.

18. Laser __ BEAM
The term “laser” is an acronym, coming from “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation” (LASER). It has been pointed out that a more precise name for laser technology is “Light Oscillation by Stimulated Emission of Radiation”, but the resulting acronym isn’t quite so appealing, namely LOSER …

20. *”The Sound of Music” heroine MARIA VON TRAPP
“The Sound of Music” is a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, made into a celebrated movie in 1965 starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The musical is based on “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers”, a memoir by Maria von Trapp. The von Trapp family ended up in Stowe, Vermont after the war, and one family descended from the Vermont von Trapps lives here in the same town in which I live in California.

23. Ho Chi Minh City, once SAIGON
During the Vietnam War, Hanoi was the capital of North Vietnam and Saigon the capital of South Vietnam. After the North Vietnamese victory, Hanoi was made capital of the reunified state. Saigon, the larger metropolis, was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City.

26. Part of ETA: Abbr. EST
Estimated time of arrival (ETA)

27. Fresno-to-L.A. direction SSE
Fresno is the largest inland city in the whole state of California. The city was named for the many ash trees that lined the San Joaquin River, as “fresno” is the Spanish for “ash tree”.

33. *Common Italian restaurant fixture PIZZA OVEN
Pizza was invented in Naples where it has a long tradition that goes back to Ancient Rome. During an 1889 visit to Naples, Queen Margherita of Savoy was served a special pizza that was created with toppings designed to mimic the colors of the Italian flag. The ingredients of tomato (red), mozzarella (white) and basil (green) can still be found together on menus today on a pie usually named Pizza Margherita after the queen. I do love basil on my pizza …

38. “__ Nagila” HAVA
“Hava Nagila” is a Hebrew folk song, with the title translating into “Let Us Rejoice”. The melody is from a Ukrainian folk song. The words to “Hava Nagila” were composed in 1918 to celebrate the British victory in Palestine during WWI.

39. ’50s vice president NIXON
Journalist Jeffrey Frank published what looks like an interesting book called “Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage”. Frank makes the case that Eisenhower really didn’t choose Nixon as a running mate in 1952, but that Nixon was chosen for him in some smoke-filled backroom in that way that such decisions were made back then. Eisenhower was a national war hero, and Nixon was noted back then as being an active and successful anti-Communist. The party elders thought that they would make a perfect ticket.

41. Snow Queen in “Frozen” ELSA
“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”.

49. Photo lab blowup: Abbr. ENL
Enlargement (enl.)

60. Soap vamp __ Kane ERICA
Susan Lucci is perhaps the most famous actor associated with daytime soap operas, and was the highest paid actor in daytime television. Lucci was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series an incredible 21 times, for her portrayal of Erica Kane in “All My Children”.

A “vamp” (short for vampire) is a seductive woman. The term was first used in reference to the sultry performance of actress Theda Bara in the 1915 film “A Fool There Was”. The movie’s title is a quotation from Rudyard Kipling’s 1897 poem “The Vampire”. Bara’s role was positioned as a “vampire”, a woman out to seduce a man, launching the use of “vamp” as an alternative term for a “femme fatale”.

61. Novelist Turgenev IVAN
Ivan Turgenev was a Russian novelist and playwright. Turgenev’s most famous works are a collection of short stories called “A Sportsman’s Sketches” (1852) and the novel “Fathers and Sons” (1862).

62. Laryngitis sound RASP
The suffix “-itis” is used to denote inflammation, as in laryngitis (inflammation of the larynx) and sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses).

65. Handled bags TOTES
A “tote” is a handled bag, a bag with handles.

66. Insect eggs NITS
A “nit” is the egg of a louse.

Lice are small wingless insects of which there are thousands of species, three of which are human disease agents. The three kinds of lice affecting humans are head lice, body lice and pubic lice. Most lice feed on dead skin found on the body of the host animal, although some feed on blood. Ick …

67. Hockey great Phil, familiarly ESPO
Phil “Espo” Esposito is a former professional hockey player who played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers.

69. Swiss abstractionist KLEE
The artist Paul Klee was born in Switzerland, but studied art in Munich in Germany. You can see many of Klee’s works in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and if you get to Bern in Switzerland, even more of them can be seen at the Zentrum Paul Klee that was opened in 2005.

70. Former Russian autocrat TSAR
The term czar (also tsar) is a Slavic word that was first used as a title by Simeon I of Bulgaria in 913 AD. “Czar” is derived from the word “Caesar”, which was synonymous with “emperor” at that time.

Down
1. “Amscray!” GIT!
Pig Latin is in effect a game. One takes the first consonant or consonant cluster of an English word and moves it to the end of the word, and then adds the letters “ay”. So the Pig Latin for the word “nix” is “ix-n-ay” … ixnay, and for “scram” is “am-scr-ay”

2. __-Locka, Florida OPA
Opa-Locka is a rather interesting city in Florida. Opa-Locka is located near Miami, and has a themed city plan that is based on “One Thousand and One Nights”. The city hall has a very Arabian look, and some examples of street names are Ali Baba Avenue and Sesame Street.

3. Coming-of-age event BAR MITZVAH
A Jewish girl becomes a Bat Mitzvah at 12 years of age, the age at which she becomes responsible for her actions. Boys become Bar Mitzvahs at 13. The terms translate into English as daughter and son of the commandments.

5. “Miniver Cheevy” poet Edwin Arlington __ ROBINSON
Edwin Arlington Robinson was an American poet, the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes.

“Miniver Cheevy” is a 1910 poem by Edwin Arlington Robinson. It is a narrative work that describes Miniver Cheevy, a hopeless romantic who would like to have been born in an earlier time. Here are the first couple of verses:

Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,
Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;
He wept that he was ever born,
And he had reasons.

Miniver loved the days of old
When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;
The vision of a warrior bold
Would set him dancing.

7. Moravian or Czech SLAV
The Slavic peoples are in the majority in communities covering over half of Europe. This large ethnic group is traditionally broken down into three smaller groups:

– the West Slavic (including Czechs and Poles)
– the East Slavic (including Russians and Ukrainians)
– the South Slavic (including Bulgarians and Serbs)

The historical region of Moravia is in the east of the Czech Republic. The region is named for the Morava River which rises in Moravia.

Czechoslovakia existed as a sovereign state in Europe from 1918 at which time it declared itself independent from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The country went through much turmoil through the days of Nazi and Soviet occupation, but democracy was restored in 1989 after the non-violent Velvet Revolution that overthrew the communist government. Nationalist tendencies did develop over time, leading to a peaceful dissolution of the country in 1993, and the creation of the two independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic (aka Slovakia).

8. __ sapiens HOMO
The Homo genus includes the species Homo sapiens (modern humans), but we’re the only species left in that genus. The last known species related to humans was Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthal Man) which died off about 24,000 years ago. However, another species was discovered in Indonesia in 2003 that has been dubbed Homo floresiensis (Flores Man … sometimes called “hobbit”), and it may possibly have lived as recently as 12,000 years ago. Watch this space …

10. Luigi’s love AMORE
“Amore” is Italian for “love”.

11. Nadal of tennis, familiarly RAFA
Rafael “Rafa” Nadal is a Spanish tennis player who is noted for his expertise on clay courts, earning him the nickname “The King of Clay”.

21. Activist Parks ROSA
Rosa Parks was one of a few brave women in days gone by who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white woman. It was the stand taken by Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955 that sparked the Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott. President Clinton presented Ms. Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. When she died in 2005, Rosa Parks became the first ever woman to have her body lie in honor in the US Capitol Rotunda.

23. Old Kia model SEPHIA
The Sephia is a compact car produced by Kia from 1992 to 2003. The name “Sephia” is actually an acronym, standing for the words “style”, “elegant”, “powerful”, “hi-tech”, “ideal”, and “auto”.

28. Party-planning site EVITE
Evite.com is a website launched in 1998 that is used to create, send and manage “evites”, online invitations.

29. All-__ printer IN-ONE
An “all-in-one” printer is a multifunctional computer peripheral that typically incorporates a photocopier, printer and scanner.

30. One of two talking animals in the Old Testament BALAAM’S ASS
Balaam was a diviner who appears in the Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible. In one story, Balaam is held to task by an angel for particularly cruel treatment of an ass. According to the account in the Bible, the ass was given the power to speak to Balaam, to complain about the mistreatment. Balaam’s ass is one of only two animals that “speak” in the Bible. The other is the serpent who tempts Eve in the Garden of Eden.

37. Get ready to drag REV
Back in the 18th century “drag” was slang for a wagon or buggy, as it was “dragged” along by a horse or horses. In the 1930s, the underworld adopted drag as slang for an automobile. This sense of the word was imported into automobile racing in the forties, giving the name to “drag racing”. A drag race is basically a competition between two cars to determine which can accelerate faster from a standstill.

43. 1994 Jim Carrey movie THE MASK
“The Mask” is a 1994 film that is based on a comic book character. Jim Carrey plays the title role. Cameron Diaz also appears in the cast, making her film debut.

45. “Break __!” A LEG
There are many, many colorful theories for the origins of the expression “break a leg”, used in the world of theater to mean “good luck”. Regardless of the origin, what is clear is that using the phrase “good luck” is considered to be very bad luck.

51. Hoosier hoopster PACER
The Indiana Pacers are the professional basketball team based in Indianapolis, who play in the NBA. The name was chosen when the team was formed in 1967. “Pacers” is a homage harness racing pacers (famed in Indiana) and the pace car used in the Indianapolis 500.

The exact origin of the word “Hoosier” is unknown, but has been around since at least 1830. The term had no direct linkage with Indiana until John Finley of Richmond, Indiana wrote a poem called “The Hoosier’s Nest” in 1833. A few years later, by 1840, “hoosier” was generally accepted as a term for Indiana residents.

53. Blue heron kin EGRET
At one time the egret species of bird was in danger of extinction due to excessive hunting driven by the demand for plumes for women’s hats.

The Great Blue Heron is native to North and Central America, but very occasionally is spotted over in Europe. There is even a Great Blue Heron that isn’t blue at all, but is white. The white Great Blue Heron is found in the Caribbean and southern Florida.

55. Field goal? CROP
A good crop might be the goal for a field on a farm.

56. Grammy winner Coolidge RITA
Rita Coolidge is a singer from Lafayette, Tennessee. Coolidge’s second marriage was to fellow singer Kris Kristofferson.

57. Sausage serving LINK
Link sausages are so called as they can come in chains, with each sausage being a link in that chain.

64. ESP neighbor, to the IOC POR
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) abbreviates the country-names Spain to “ESP” and Portugal to “POR”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Desert partly in northern China GOBI
5. Allergic reaction RASH
9. Make overly dry PARCH
14. Air or Mini IPAD
15. Capital on a fjord OSLO
16. Union Pacific Railroad headquarters OMAHA
17. Acidic TART
18. Laser __ BEAM
19. Up to this point SO FAR
20. *”The Sound of Music” heroine MARIA VON TRAPP
23. Ho Chi Minh City, once SAIGON
25. Tribute in verse ODE
26. Part of ETA: Abbr. EST
27. Fresno-to-L.A. direction SSE
29. Altar oath I DO
30. Conk on the head BOP
33. *Common Italian restaurant fixture PIZZA OVEN
36. Construction site sight CRANE
38. “__ Nagila” HAVA
39. ’50s vice president NIXON
41. Snow Queen in “Frozen” ELSA
42. Unsuitable INAPT
44. *Completely in vain TO NO AVAIL
46. Remains in a tray ASH
47. Row-making tool HOE
49. Photo lab blowup: Abbr. ENL
50. Had a meal ATE
51. According to PER
52. Appeared SEEMED
54. Breakfast serving, and a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters SCRAMBLED EGGS
60. Soap vamp __ Kane ERICA
61. Novelist Turgenev IVAN
62. Laryngitis sound RASP
65. Handled bags TOTES
66. Insect eggs NITS
67. Hockey great Phil, familiarly ESPO
68. Stimulate SPARK
69. Swiss abstractionist KLEE
70. Former Russian autocrat TSAR

Down
1. “Amscray!” GIT!
2. __-Locka, Florida OPA
3. Coming-of-age event BAR MITZVAH
4. Luggage tie-on ID TAG
5. “Miniver Cheevy” poet Edwin Arlington __ ROBINSON
6. Sailing, say ASEA
7. Moravian or Czech SLAV
8. __ sapiens HOMO
9. Like some specialized research, for short POSTDOC
10. Luigi’s love AMORE
11. Nadal of tennis, familiarly RAFA
12. Become overly dry CHAP
13. Angelic strings HARP
21. Activist Parks ROSA
22. Show assent NOD
23. Old Kia model SEPHIA
24. Koreans, e.g. ASIANS
28. Party-planning site EVITE
29. All-__ printer IN-ONE
30. One of two talking animals in the Old Testament BALAAM’S ASS
31. Like some training ON-SITE
32. Rang out PEALED
34. Ray gun sound ZAP
35. Outer: Pref. EXO-
37. Get ready to drag REV
40. Drivel NONSENSE
43. 1994 Jim Carrey movie THE MASK
45. “Break __!” A LEG
48. Planet, poetically ORB
51. Hoosier hoopster PACER
53. Blue heron kin EGRET
54. Tennis divisions SETS
55. Field goal? CROP
56. Grammy winner Coolidge RITA
57. Sausage serving LINK
58. Like some movie twins EVIL
59. Historian’s tidbit DATE
63. Fancy tub SPA
64. ESP neighbor, to the IOC POR

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4 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 5 Nov 14, Wednesday”

  1. Finished easily for a Wednesday, but had 3 entries about the meaning of which I had no idea.

    Thanx for explaining Air IPAD, RAFA, and POR; especially that last one. couldn't imagine what was a neighbor of extra-sensory perception. Of course, sports is my weakest point, though I did know ESPO from crosswords; but also, young singers (young people don't even use the word "singer"), and French words.

    I don't understand why one would shake up the letters for OVA, but OK.

  2. The shaken up letters for OVA are an answer to 54A SCRAMBLEDEGGS. Scrambled versions of OVA (eggs)are AVO, AOV and OAV 🙂

    The Snow Queen in Frozen is a little confusing to me. The story is based on a Hans Christian Anderson tale called The Snow Queen in which Anna is the main character. In the Disney version, Anna has all the lines, most of the songs and the most love interests. But it is Elsa who has become the most popular with kids. She is technically the Snow Queen since she has the power to turn everything into ice and snow.

  3. late hello to everyone today

    Not terribly difficult for a Gareth Bain puzzle. One of these days he'll produce a Friday or Saturday puzzle again, and I'll be sorry I said that.

    I did get a chuckle out of the theme. Am I the only person on the planet who does NOT think Jim Carey is funny? I remember reading Miniver Cheevy in school, but the only thing I remember about it is the catchy title.

    I had the pleasure of going through some of the fjords of Norway a few years back. They just might be mother nature's most beautiful work anywhere on the planet IMHO. Absolutely amazing.

    Best –

  4. Medium strength for a Wednesday. I wonder why puzzle setters always put the hint clue toward the bottom – I try to solve that first and see if it helps me. It did today.
    @Jeff: no, you're not alone! I don't like Jim Carrey either…sorry to his fans here. Must speak the truth!

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