LA Times Crossword Answers 25 Dec 14, Thursday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: John Lieb
THEME: Elfs on the Shelf … in today’s grid we have eight occurrences of the letter sequence ELF sitting above a SHELF (three black squares side-by-side) i.e. eight ELFS ON THE SHELF. Merry Christmas, everyone!

18A. Eponymous Detroit exec EDSEL FORD
19A. Speaks for __ ITSELF
31A. Keebler cookie brand EL FUDGE
32A. “Go right ahead” FEEL FREE
36A. Seasonal children’s book about a watchful worker, who is graphically represented eight times in this puzzle THE ELF ON THE SHELF
54A. Actress Jenna et al. ELFMANS
55A. Third quarters? TWELFTHS

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 14m 03s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 2 … ELFMANS (Elfoans), MMMBOP (MomBop!!!)

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

10. Port south of Hamilton, Ont. ERIE, PA
Erie is a city in the very north of Pennsylvania, right on the southern shore of Lake Erie. The city takes its name from the Erie Native American tribe that resided in the area.

Hamilton, Ontario is a port city on the western end of Lake Ontario. It is a popular location for film shoots, and has been used for mainstream movies such as “Gone in 60 Seconds”, “X-Men”, “Hairspray” and “The Incredible Hulk”.

17. One in a shower METEOR
A shooting star is what we call the visible path of a meteoroid as is it enters the earth’s atmosphere. Almost all meteoroids burn up, but if one is large enough to survive and reach the ground, we call it a meteorite. The word “meteor” comes from the Greek “meteōros” meaning “high in the air”.

18. Eponymous Detroit exec EDSEL FORD
The Edsel brand of automobile was named for Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford. Sadly, the name “Edsel” has become synonymous with “failure”, which was no fault of Edsel himself who had died several years before the Edsel line was introduced.

23. Vine genus CLEMATIS
The genus of flowering plant known as clematis is in the buttercup family. The name of the genus comes from an Ancient Greek word for “a climbing plant”.

31. Keebler cookie brand EL FUDGE
When Keebler introduced its E.L. Fudge line of cookies, the “E.L.” was deemed to stand for “Everybody Loves”. The marketing folks now say that the ELF monogram is in honor of the Keebler Elf.

The famous Keebler Elves have been appearing in ads for Keebler since 1968. The original head of the elves was J. J. Keebler, but he was toppled from power by Ernest J. Keebler in 1970.

33. Star Wars letters SDI
One of the positive outcomes of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was a change in US defense strategy. The new approach was to use missiles to destroy incoming hostile weapons, rather than using missiles to destroy the nation attacking the country. The former doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction went by the apt acronym of MAD …

34. Author Fleming IAN
Ian Fleming is most famous for writing the “James Bond” series of spy novels. You might also know that he wrote the children’s story “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, which was made into a cute movie released in 1968 and even a stage musical that opened in 2002.

35. Swiss river AAR
The Aar (also called the “Aare” in German) is the longest river entirely in Switzerland. A famous spot along the Aar is the Reichenbach Falls in the center of the country, actually a series of waterfalls near the city of Meiringen. These falls are renowned in the world of literature as it was here that Sherlock Holmes fell to his supposed doom with his nemesis Professor Moriarty (in “The Adventure of the Final Problem”).

36. Seasonal children’s book about a watchful worker, who is graphically represented eight times in this puzzle THE ELF ON THE SHELF
“The Elf on the Shelf” is a children’s picture book first published in 2005. It tells us that Santa’s elves hide in our homes from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. They then return to the North Pole and report to Santa, telling him who was naughty and who was nice. So beware …

43. Feminine principle YIN
The yin and the yang can be explained using many different metaphors. In one, as the sun shines on a mountain, the side in the shade is the yin and the side in the light is the yang. The yin is also regarded as the feminine side, and the yang the masculine. The yin can also be associated with the moon, while the yang is associated with the sun.

44. Guitar, slangily AXE
In the world of music, “axe” is slang term for a musical instrument, especially a guitar or horn.

54. Actress Jenna et al. ELFMANS
The actress Jenna Elfman is best known for playing Dharma in the sitcom “Dharma & Greg”. Elfman’s most noted role on the big screen is Anna Riley on the 2000 film “Keeping the Faith”.

55. Third quarters? TWELFTHS
One third of a quarter is a twelfth.

56. ’80s Peppard co-star MR T
“The A-Team” is an action television series that originally ran in the eighties. The A-Team was a group of ex-US special forces personnel who became mercenaries. Star of the show was Hollywood actor George Peppard, ably assisted by Mr. T and Robert Vaughan.

57. Pres. after JAG CAA
Chester Arthur was the 21st President of the US, and came to power after the assassination of James Garfield in 1881. President Arthur was known to be socially adept, and was very conscious of his role in society. He was always immaculately attired, apparently even changing his pants several times in a day. He was called “Chet” by family and friends, and sometimes answered to his middle name, Alan. However, he insisted that Alan be pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, Al-an.

James Abram Garfield, the 20th President, was assassinated while in office. He was shot twice, and one bullet could not be found (it was lodged in his spine). The inventor Alexander Graham Bell developed a metal detector in an attempt to locate the bullet, but apparently he was unsuccessful because of interference from the metal bed frame on which the president lay. Garfield died two months after being shot.

58. Canada’s smallest prov. PEI
Prince Edward Island (PEI) is a maritime Canadian province. The eponymous island at the center of the province was named for Prince Edward, the fourth son of King George III and the father of Queen Victoria. PEI is the smallest Canadian province both in terms of land mass and population.

59. 1962 Best Picture title locale ARABIA
The Arabian Peninsula (also “Arabia”) is part of Western Asia that is located just north-east of Africa. The peninsula is bordered to the west by the Red Sea, to the northeast by the Persian Gulf, and to the southeast by the Indian Ocean. Most of the Arabian Peninsula is taken up by Saudi Arabia, but also included are Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen.

“Lawrence of Arabia” is a 1962 movie that recounts the real life story of T. E. Lawrence, a British army officer famous for his role in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I. The title role in the film is played by Irish actor Peter O’Toole. The role of Sherif Ali ibn el Kharish is played by Omar Sharif.

62. Refuel, as red blood cells OXYGENATE
Hemoglobin is the key protein in red blood cells. Hemoglobin transports oxygen around the body, and also the waste carbon dioxide.

66. House speaker before Boehner PELOSI
Nancy Pelosi is a former Speaker of the House, the 60th person to hold that position. Ms. Pelosi represents a district not far from here, which covers most of San Francisco. She is the first Californian, the first Italian-American and the first woman to be Speaker of the House. As Speaker, she was also second in line, after the Vice President, to take over if President Obama could not finish his term. That made Nancy Pelosi the highest-ranking female politician in US history.

John Boehner has been Leader of the House of Representatives since 2011, and was the House Minority Leader from 2007 to 2011. Boehner is from Reading, Ohio and grew up in modest circumstances in a two-bedroom house with eleven siblings. After Boehner graduated from university in 1977, he joined a small packaging and plastics business. By the time he resigned to serve in Congress, Boehner had risen to become president of the company.

68. 2002 eBay acquisition PAYPAL
PayPal is an ecommerce business that has been around since the year 2000, born out of a merger of two older companies: Confinity and X.com. PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors. The company was so successful that it was the first of the beleaguered dot.com companies to successfully complete an IPO after the attacks of 9/11. Then in 2002, PayPal was bought by eBay for a whopping $1.5 billion. eBay announced in 2014 that PayPal will be spun off into a separate company.

Down
3. Rapper who played Chuck Berry in “Cadillac Records” MOS DEF
Mos Def was the stage name of actor and rapper Dante Terrell Smith-Bay, until in 2012 he decided to adopt the new stage name Yasiin Bey. Bey is one of the few rap stars who is really making a name for himself in the world of movies. He received critical acclaim for roles in 2003’s “The Italian Job” , 2005’s “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, and a featured role in an episode of television’s “House”.

“Cadillac Records” is a 2008 movie about the life of Leonard Chess who founded Chess Records along with his brother. There are some famous characters appearing in the film, including Chuck Berry (played by Mos Def) and Etta James (played by Beyoncé Knowles).

4. Calculus lead-in PRE-
The Latin word “calculus” was originally used for a reckoning or an account, and originally applied to a pebble that was used to maintain a count. The Latin word came from the Greek for a pebble, “khalix”.

5. Pitcher Maglie SAL
Sal Maglie was a professional baseball pitcher, one of just a few players who played for all three New York teams of his day, namely the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Maglie was known as Sal the Barber because he was said to give “close shaves” to hitters, frequently pitching on the inside.

6. Pugilists’ org. IBF
There are four major organizations that sanction world champion boxing. These are the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, the World Boxing Organization and the IBF: the International Boxing Federation.

“Pugilism”, another word for “boxing”, comes from the Latin “pugil” meaning “boxer”. In turn, “pugil” derives from “pugnus”, the word for “fist”.

7. Schoolmate of Blair, Jo and Natalie on “The Facts of Life” TOOTIE
The actress Kim Fields is best known for playing Tootie Ramsey in the sitcom “The Facts of Life”, and Regine Hunter on “Living Single”.

8. Barcelona bread EUROS
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain, after the capital Madrid. Barcelona is the largest European city that sits on the Mediterranean coast. It is also the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia.

10. Ellis Island arrival EMIGRE
Ellis Island is an exclave of New York City that is geographically located within Jersey City, New Jersey. The name comes from a Samuel Ellis who owned the island around the time of the American Revolution. Ellis Island was the nation’s main immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954.

14. Beltway insider, for short POL
The phrase “inside the Beltway” is used to refer to the infrastructure and politics of Washington, D.C. The Beltway in this case is Interstate 495, also known as the Capital Beltway.

26. “I’ve waited all week for this!” TGIF!
“Thank God It’s Friday” (TGIF) is a relatively new expression that originated in Akron, Ohio. It was a catchphrase used first by disk jockey Jerry Healy of WAKR in the early seventies.

27. Phnom __ PENH
Phnom Penh (also “Pnom Penh”) is the capital of Cambodia, and has been so since the French colonized the country in the late 1800s. The city’s name translates from the Khmer language as “Hill of Penh”.

28. Requiem title word 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.

29. Blue-green shade TEAL
The beautiful color of teal takes it name from the duck called a “teal”, which has dark greenish-blue (teal) markings on its head and wings.

30. Medieval peon SERF
A serf was a member of the lowest feudal class, someone attached to land owned by a lord. “Serf” comes from the Latin “servus”, meaning “slave”.

A peon is a lowly worker with no real control over his/her working conditions. The word comes into English from Spanish where it has the same meaning.

34. “New Sensation” band INXS
INXS (pronounced “in excess”) was a rock band from Australia. The band formed in 1977 in Sydney as the Farriss Brothers, as three of the original lineups were indeed brothers.

40. Sport with blades 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”.

41. Elite commando SEAL
SEAL is an acronym used by the US Navy’s SEa, Air and Land teams. The SEALs were born out of the Navy’s special warfare groups from WWII, like the Underwater Demolition Teams and the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons. The Navy SEAL unit was established soon after President Kennedy’s famous speech in which he announced the plan to put a man on the moon, as in the same speech the president allocated $100m of funding to strengthen special operations forces. The Navy used some of this money to set up guerrilla and counter-guerrilla units, which soon became the SEALs.

47. 1997 Hanson #1 hit MMMBOP
Hanson is a pop rock boy band from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hanson’s biggest hit is the 1997 song “MMMBop”.

48. Tomei of “My Cousin Vinny” MARISA
Marisa Tomei’s first screen role was in “As the World Turns”, but her break came with a recurring role in “The Cosby Show” spinoff called “A Different World”. Tomei won an Oscar for her delightful performance in “My Cousin Vinny” in 1992.

“My Cousin Vinny” is a really fun film from 1992 starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei. In 2008, the American Bar Association rated “My Cousin Vinny” as the #3 Greatest Legal Movie of all time, after “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “12 Angry Men”!

50. Wrestler Johnson known as “The Rock” DWAYNE
Dwayne Johnson is a former professional wrestler whose ring name was “The Rock”. He has used his success as a character in the ring, to cross over into television and movies. He is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as getting the highest payment for a first starring role, $5.5 million.

51. March observance, for short ST PATS
There is a fair amount known about St. Patrick, some of which comes from two letters written in his own hand. St. Patrick lived in the fifth century, but was not born in Ireland. He was first brought to Ireland at about 16 years of age from his native Britain, by Irish raiders who made him a slave for six years. Patrick managed to escape and returned to his homeland where he studied and entered the Church. He went back to Ireland as a bishop and a missionary and there lived out the rest of his life. There seems to be good evidence that he died on March 17th (now celebrated annually as St. Patrick’s Day), although the year is less clear. The stories about shamrock and snakes, I am afraid they are the stuff of legend.

52. Hall of Fame placekicker Lou Groza’s apt nickname THE TOE
Lou Groza was placekicker who played his entire career with the Cleveland Browns. He retired in 1967 as the league’s career kicking and points leader. The Lou Groza Award has been presented annually since 1992 to the country’s best college placekicker.

53. Basketry twigs 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.

60. Stephen of “In Dreams” REA
Stephen Rea is an Irish actor from Belfast. Rea’s most successful role was Fergus in 1992’s “The Crying Game”, for which performance he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. In “The Crying Game”, Fergus was a member of the IRA. In real life, Rea was married to IRA bomber and hunger striker Dolours Price at the time he made the movie.

“In Dreams” is a 1999 thriller film directed by the great Neil Jordan. The movie features Annette Bening as a suburban housewife who develops a psychic connection with a serial killer who murdered her own daughter. I haven’t seen this one …

61. Prince __ Khan ALY
Aly Khan was a familiar name used by the media when referring to Prince Ali Solomone Aga Khan, the Pakistani ambassador to the UN from 1958 to 1960. Khan made it into the papers a lot as he was the third husband of actress Rita Hayworth.

64. Christmas __ EVE
I hope that y’all had a good one …

65. Indian flatbread NAN
Naan (also “nan”) bread is very popular in Indian restaurants, as well as in other West, Central and South Asian cuisines. Indian Naan is traditionally baked in a clay oven known as a tandoor.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Resting places CAMPSITES
10. Port south of Hamilton, Ont. ERIE, PA
16. Approximately ON OR ABOUT
17. One in a shower METEOR
18. Eponymous Detroit exec EDSEL FORD
19. Speaks for __ ITSELF
20. “Gnarly!” RAD!
21. Lean-__ TOS
22. Bit of baby talk GOO
23. Vine genus CLEMATIS
27. Gains PROFITS
31. Keebler cookie brand EL FUDGE
32. “Go right ahead” FEEL FREE
33. Star Wars letters SDI
34. Author Fleming IAN
35. Swiss river AAR
36. Seasonal children’s book about a watchful worker, who is graphically represented eight times in this puzzle THE ELF ON THE SHELF
43. Feminine principle YIN
44. Guitar, slangily AXE
45. __ green PEA
46. Dives PLUMMETS
50. Gives a hand DEALS TO
54. Actress Jenna et al. ELFMANS
55. Third quarters? TWELFTHS
56. ’80s Peppard co-star MR T
57. Pres. after JAG CAA
58. Canada’s smallest prov. PEI
59. 1962 Best Picture title locale ARABIA
62. Refuel, as red blood cells OXYGENATE
66. House speaker before Boehner PELOSI
67. House flipper, e.g. RENOVATOR
68. 2002 eBay acquisition PAYPAL
69. False claims PRETENSES

Down
1. Pressure COERCE
2. Still __: nonetheless AND ALL
3. Rapper who played Chuck Berry in “Cadillac Records” MOS DEF
4. Calculus lead-in PRE-
5. Pitcher Maglie SAL
6. Pugilists’ org. IBF
7. Schoolmate of Blair, Jo and Natalie on “The Facts of Life” TOOTIE
8. Barcelona bread EUROS
9. Criteria: Abbr. STDS
10. Ellis Island arrival EMIGRE
11. Update the workshop RETOOL
12. Cancellation notice IT’S OFF
13. Big shoes to fill? EEE
14. Beltway insider, for short POL
15. Sound from the pound ARF
24. Deliberate MUSE
25. Extra: Abbr. ADDL
26. “I’ve waited all week for this!” TGIF!
27. Phnom __ PENH
28. Requiem title word IRAE
29. Blue-green shade TEAL
30. Medieval peon SERF
32. The way it goes FATE
34. “New Sensation” band INXS
36. Kind TYPE
37. Incline HILL
38. Ample, informally ENUF
39. Feed in a stable OATS
40. Sport with blades EPEE
41. Elite commando SEAL
42. Word with mile or marathon HALF
47. 1997 Hanson #1 hit MMMBOP
48. Tomei of “My Cousin Vinny” MARISA
49. Require ENTAIL
50. Wrestler Johnson known as “The Rock” DWAYNE
51. March observance, for short ST PATS
52. Hall of Fame placekicker Lou Groza’s apt nickname THE TOE
53. Basketry twigs OSIERS
55. One imposing levies TAXER
57. Inc. cousin CORP
59. Online store offering APP
60. Stephen of “In Dreams” REA
61. Prince __ Khan ALY
63. Grasped GOT
64. Christmas __ EVE
65. Indian flatbread NAN

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