LA Times Crossword Answers 13 Jan 15, Tuesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Tom Uttormark & C.C. Burnikel
THEME: T-A Male … each of today’s themed answers is a male celebrity with the initials TA:

47D. Husk-wrapped Mexican dish, and when divided in three parts, a hint to the answers to starred clues TAMALE (or “TA MALE”)

17A. *Miracle Mets center fielder TOMMIE AGEE
26A. *Creator of Daffy and Bugs TEX AVERY
37A. *”Songs About Me” country singer TRACE ADKINS
49A. *He voiced Buzz Lightyear in “Toy Story” TIM ALLEN
58A. *Three-time Super Bowl-winning Cowboys quarterback TROY AIKMAN

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 7m 00s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Tie with a cord BOLO
I’ve never worn a bolo tie, and was surprised to discover that it is a relatively recent invention. The first bolo tie was apparently produced in Wickenburg, Arizona in the late 1940s by a silversmith. The bolo takes its name from the boleadora, an Argentine lariat.

10. Miss from Madrid: Abbr. SRTA
Señorita (Srta.) is Spanish and mademoiselle (Mlle.) is French for “Miss”.

Madrid is the largest city in Spain and the capital. Madrid is located very close to the geographical center of the country. It is the third-largest city in the European Union (after London and Paris). People from Madrid called themselves Madrileños.

14. Texter’s “That being said …” OTOH
On the other hand (OTOH)

17. *Miracle Mets center fielder TOMMIE AGEE
Tommie Agee was a Major League Baseball player who played mainly with the Indians, White Sox and Mets. He was one of the “Amazin’ Mets”, and was famous for making two phenomenal catches in game three of the 1969 world series, potentially saving five runs.

21. Friskies eater CAT
The Friskies brand is known today as a cat food, although it started out as a dry dog food in 1930.

26. *Creator of Daffy and Bugs TEX AVERY
Tex Avery was a cartoon animator and voice actor in Hollywood. Avery was the man who created Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. It was Avery who gave Bugs Bunny the line “What’s up, doc?” Apparently it was a phrase that was common in his native Texas and one that became a bit of a catchphrase at North Dallas High School, which Avery attended in the twenties.

28. Nevada gambling city RENO
The city of Reno’s economy took off when open gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931. Within a short time, a syndicate had built the Bank Club in Reno, which was the largest casino in the whole world at the time.

36. Nav. rank ENS
Ensign is (usually) the most junior rank of commissioned officer in the armed forces. The name comes from the tradition that the junior officer would be given the task of carrying the ensign flag.

37. *”Songs About Me” country singer TRACE ADKINS
Trace Adkins is a country singer who has also appeared in a quite a few movies and television shows. Adkins was the winner on the reality show “The Celebrity Apprentice” in 2013, after having coming in second place to Piers Morgan in 2008.

39. Dashboard meas. MPH
Back in the 1800s, “dashboard” was the name given to a “board” placed at the front of a carriage to stop mud from “dashing” against the passengers in the carriage, mud that was kicked up by the hoofs of the horses. Quite interesting …

42. Island near Venezuela ARUBA
Aruba is one of the so-called ABC Islands. The ABC Islands is the nickname given to the three westernmost islands of the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean. The nickname comes from the first letters of the island names: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. All three of the ABC Islands are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

44. Mexican mama bear OSA
In Spanish, “osa” is a female bear, and “oso” is a male.

45. Official records ACTA
Actum (plural “acta”) is the Latin word for “deed”. “Acta” is used in English to describe many official records, including minutes, proceedings etc.

49. *He voiced Buzz Lightyear in “Toy Story” TIM ALLEN
Tim Allen is a comedian and comic actor from Denver, Colorado. Allen is probably still best known for playing the lead in the sitcom “Home Improvement”, and on the big screen as Santa Claus in “The Santa Clause” series of movies. Famously, Allen served over 2 years in prison for drug-related offenses his twenties. He cleaned up his act though, and seems to have made a great life for himself.

1995’s “Toy Story” was the world’s first feature-length computer-animated movie. “Toy Story” was also the studio Pixar’s first production. The main roles in the film are Woody and Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen respectively. Hanks was the first choice to voice Woody, Allen was asked to voice Buzz after Billy Crystal turned down the role.

52. European toast SKOAL
Skoal is a Swedish toast, with roots in the old Norse word “skaal” meaning “cup”.

54. Fraternal club member ELK
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) was founded in 1868, and is a social club that has about a million members today. It started out as a group of men getting together in a “club” in order to get around the legal opening hours of taverns in New York City. The club took on a new role as it started to look out for poor families of members who passed away. The club now accepts African Americans as members (since the seventies) and women (since the nineties), but atheists still aren’t welcome.

56. CCV x X MML
205 x 10 = 2050

58. *Three-time Super Bowl-winning Cowboys quarterback TROY AIKMAN
Troy Aikman used to play quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. Now that he is retired from football, Aikman works as a sportscaster on the Fox network.

63. Odometer unit MILE
An odometer measures distance traveled. The term “odometer’ derives from the Greek “hodos” meaning “path” and “metron” meaning “measure”.

64. Pajama parts TOPS
Our word “pajamas” comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. In the British Isles the spelling is “pyjamas”.

Down
2. Peter of “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1969) O’TOOLE
Irish actor Peter O’Toole got his big break in movies when he played the title role in the 1962 epic film “Lawrence of Arabia”. But my favorite of O’Toole’s movies is much lighter fare, namely “How to Steal a Million” in which he stars opposite Audrey Hepburn.

The 1939 film “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” is such a beautiful movie, one that I highly recommend. It is based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton, and stars Robert Donat and Greer Garson. Over the course of the story, Robert Donat had to age 63 years. If you’ve seen the movie you’ll perhaps agree with me that he and the makeup folks did a remarkably convincing job, especially for a 1939 production. A second big screen adaptation of Hilton’s novel was released in 1969. Also titled “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”, it is a musical version starring Irish actor Peter O’Toole and English singer Petula Clark.

3. Chinese noodle dish LO MEIN
Chow mein has two slightly different meanings on the East and West Coasts of the US. On the East Coast, “basic” chow mein is a crispy dish, whereas on the West Coast it is a steamed dish and relatively soft. On the East Coast the steamed dish is available, but under the name “lo mein”. On the West Coast, the crispy dish is also on the menu, as Hong Kong style chow mein.

4. Unit of resistance OHM
The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

5. Bay __: Oakland’s locale AREA
The city of Oakland, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, was settled by the Spanish in 1772. The area now known as Oakland was called “encinal” by those early settlers, which translates as “oak grove”, giving the city its name.

13. “You __ My Sunshine” ARE
“You Are My Sunshine” is a song that was written back in 1933. It was first recorded in 1939, by the Pine Ridge Boys.

23. Large game fish MARLIN
The fish called a marlin takes its name from the sailor’s took called a marlinspike. The long nose of the marlin might indeed be described as a “spike”. A marlinspike is used by sailors when working with rope, untying knots or perhaps splicing. The name of the tool comes from the practice of “marling”, which is the winding of twine around the ends of a larger piece of rope to prevent it from unravelling.

26. High-level betrayal TREASON
Treason is a serious crime committed against the nation (or the sovereign). One who commits treason is called a traitor. In the past, the term treason also applied to lesser crimes (like a woman killing her husband) so there was a differentiation between high treason against the king, and “petit treason”, against a more common citizen.

29. __ de gallo: salsa fresca PICO
Pico de gallo is a Mexican condiment made from tomato, onion and chili peppers. “Pico de gallo” is Spanish for “beak of rooster”. Apparently this name was given as eating of the condiment with the thumb and forefinger resembled the pecking of a rooster. An alternative name for pico de gallo is “salsa fresca”, which translates literally as “fresh sauce”.

30. Chevy hatchback AVEO
The Chevrolet Aveo is a subcompact automobile that has been around since 2002. The Aveo is manufactured by GM Daewoo, the GM subsidiary in South Korea. Although the Aveo name is still used in some markets, here in North America the Aveo has been sold as the Chevrolet Sonic since 2012. By the way, GM Daewoo is the third largest manufacturer of automobiles in South Korea, after Hyundai and Kia.

35. Swedish furniture giant IKEA
The IKEA furniture stores use the colors blue and yellow for brand recognition. Blue and yellow are the national colors of Sweden, where IKEA was founded and is headquartered.

37. Good sign from Ebert THUMBS UP
Roger Ebert was a film critic for “The Chicago Sun-Times” for 50 years. He also co-hosted a succession of film review television programs for over 23 years, most famously with Gene Siskel until Siskel passed away in 1999. Siskel and Ebert famously gave their thumbs up or thumbs down to the movies they reviewed. Ebert was the first film to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, which he did in 1975. He was diagnosed and treated for thyroid cancer in 2002, and finally succumbed to a recurrence of the disease in April 2013.

38. Fargo’s state: Abbr. NDAK
Fargo, North Dakota is the biggest city in the state. The original name for the city was Centralia, when it was a stopping point for steamboats that traveled the Red River in the late 19th century. The town really grew with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway, so the name “Fargo” was adopted in honor of one of the railroad company’s directors, William Fargo (of Wells Fargo Express fame).

39. Yoga class rental MAT
In the West we tend to think of yoga as a physical discipline, a means of exercise that uses specific poses to stretch and strengthen muscles. While it is true that the ancient Indian practice of yoga does involve such physical discipline, the corporeal aspect of the practice plays a relatively small part in the whole philosophy. Other major components are meditation, ethical behavior, breathing and contemplation.

47. Husk-wrapped Mexican dish, and when divided in three parts, a hint to the answers to starred clues TAMALE (or “T-A MALE”)
A tamale is a traditional dish from Central America composed of a starchy dough that is steamed or boiled in a wrapper made of leaves. The dough is called masa, and can include many different ingredients including meat, cheese fruit and vegetables.

51. Scandal-plagued energy giant ENRON
After all the trials following the exposure of fraud at Enron, several of the key players ended up in jail. Andrew Fastow was the Chief Financial Officer. He plea-bargained and received ten years without parole, and became the key witness in the trials of others. Even Fastow’s wife was involved and she was sentenced to one year for helping her husband hide money. Jeffrey Skilling (ex-CEO) was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months. Kenneth Lay (CEO) died in 2006 after he had been found guilty but before he could be sentenced. The accounting firm Arthur Andersen was found guilty of obstruction of justice for shredding thousands of pertinent documents and deleting emails and files (a decision that the Supreme Court later overturned on a technicality). But still, Arthur Andersen collapsed under the weight of the scandal and 85,000 people lost their jobs (despite only a handful being directly involved with Enron).

55. Title for Godiva LADY
In the legend of Lady Godiva, a noblewoman rode naked through the streets of Coventry in England, basically as a dare from her husband in return for relieving the taxes of his tenants. Lady Godiva issued instructions that all the town’s inhabitants should stay indoors while she made her journey. However, a tailor in the town named Tom disobeyed the instructions by boring holes in the shutters on his windows, and “peeped”. As a result, Peeping Tom was struck blind, and the term “peeping Tom” has been in our language ever since.

57. East, to Ernst OST
“Ost” is German for “east”.

60. Metric distances: Abbr. KMS
Kilometer (km)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Tie with a cord BOLO
5. Acute anxiety ANGST
10. Miss from Madrid: Abbr. SRTA
14. Texter’s “That being said …” OTOH
15. Get on the phone, say REACH
16. Lustful look LEER
17. *Miracle Mets center fielder TOMMIE AGEE
19. ”If all __ fails …” ELSE
20. Weed whacker HOE
21. Friskies eater CAT
22. “Your choice” NAME IT
24. Skip over in pronunciation ELIDE
26. *Creator of Daffy and Bugs TEX AVERY
28. Nevada gambling city RENO
29. __ for the course PAR
31. Variety show REVUE
32. Dressing component OLIVE OIL
36. Nav. rank ENS
37. *”Songs About Me” country singer TRACE ADKINS
39. Dashboard meas. MPH
41. Unsettled detail LOOSE END
42. Island near Venezuela ARUBA
44. Mexican mama bear OSA
45. Official records ACTA
49. *He voiced Buzz Lightyear in “Toy Story” TIM ALLEN
52. European toast SKOAL
53. Come by OBTAIN
54. Fraternal club member ELK
56. CCV x X MML
57. Roughly OR SO
58. *Three-time Super Bowl-winning Cowboys quarterback TROY AIKMAN
61. Dumbfound STUN
62. Wished (for) HOPED
63. Odometer unit MILE
64. Pajama parts TOPS
65. Line in a ledger ENTRY
66. Fret STEW

Down
1. Pester BOTHER
2. Peter of “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” (1969) O’TOOLE
3. Chinese noodle dish LO MEIN
4. Unit of resistance OHM
5. Bay __: Oakland’s locale AREA
6. Tidy NEAT
7. Joke GAG
8. Bad thing to make in public SCENE
9. Bad thing to get at work THE AX
10. Record protector SLEEVE
11. Takes over for RELIEVES
12. Trial in simulated conditions TEST RUN
13. “You __ My Sunshine” ARE
18. Skating surface ICE
23. Large game fish MARLIN
25. Way in DOOR
26. High-level betrayal TREASON
27. “You betcha!” YES!
29. __ de gallo: salsa fresca PICO
30. Chevy hatchback AVEO
33. [I don’t remember the words] LA LA LA
34. Laudatory poems ODES
35. Swedish furniture giant IKEA
37. Good sign from Ebert THUMBS UP
38. Fargo’s state: Abbr. NDAK
39. Yoga class rental MAT
40. Before PRIOR TO
43. They’re waved by conductors BATONS
46. Say “I do,” say COMMIT
47. Husk-wrapped Mexican dish, and when divided in three parts, a hint to the answers to starred clues TAMALE (or “TA MALE”)
48. Never seen before ALL NEW
50. Supple LITHE
51. Scandal-plagued energy giant ENRON
52. Enjoy the slopes SKI
54. Watcher EYER
55. Title for Godiva LADY
57. East, to Ernst OST
59. Make a choice OPT
60. Metric distances: Abbr. KMS

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