LA Times Crossword Answers 23 Mar 15, Monday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Mary Lou Guizzo
THEME: MC … each of today’s themed answers comprises two words, beginning with the letters MC:

68A. Roast host, and a hint to the answers to starred clues EMCEE

17A. *Dots-and-dashes system MORSE CODE
36A. *Entrée MAIN COURSE
43A. *Boxy British economy car MINI COOPER
61A. *Venue for hypothetical legal cases MOOT COURT
11D. *Wallet alternatives MONEY CLIPS
29D. *Hannah Montana portrayer MILEY CYRUS

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 44s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

4. Scotch whisky brand J AND B
The famous blended scotch whisky known as J&B is made by Justerini & Brooks, hence the name. J&B is the second best-selling blended scotch whisky on the market, with only Johnny Walker sold in larger volumes.

9. Apples, e.g. POMES
The Latin word for “fruit” is “pomum”, which gives us the botanical term “pome” that is used for a group of fleshy fruits, including apples and pears.

14. Sushi bar tuna AHI
Yellowfin tuna is usually marketed as “ahi”, its Hawaiian name. Yellowfin tuna is one big fish, often weighing over 300 pounds.

15. “Inside the NBA” analyst Shaq O’NEAL
Shaquille O’Neal is one of the heaviest players ever to have played in the NBA (weighing in at around 325 pounds). Yep, he’s a big guy … 7 foot 1 inch tall.

16. Scary bacteria E COLI
Escherichia coli (E. coli) are usually harmless bacteria found in the human gut, working away quite happily. However, there are some strains that can produce lethal toxins. These strains can make their way into the food chain from animal fecal matter that comes into contact with food designated for human consumption.

17. *Dots-and-dashes system MORSE CODE
Samuel Morse came up with the forerunner to modern Morse code for use on the electric telegraph, of which he was the coinventor. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers. The most common letters are assigned the simplest code elements e.g. E is represented by one dot, and T is represented by one dash.

20. Long Island airport town ISLIP
The town of Islip is on the south shore of Long Island. It is home to Islip Airport, now known as Long Island MacArthur Airport, used by many as a viable alternative to JFK and LaGuardia.

21. “Divergent” star Woodley SHAILENE
Shailene Woodley is the actress who plays Tris Prior, the main protagonist in “The Divergent Series” of movies.

“The Divergent Series” of movies is based on the “Divergent” novels written by Veronica Roth. The movies and novels are set in a post-apocalyptic version of Chicago called the Divergent Universe. The story is about a citizenry that is divided into five different factions based on personality traits. The critics weren’t crazy about the first movie in the series, but I really enjoyed it …

23. Robber, to cops PERP
Perpetrator (perp.)

27. Electrical 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.

33. Revolutionary Guevara CHE
Ernesto “Che” Guevara was born in Argentina, and in 1948 he started to study medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. While at school he satisfied his need to “see the world” by taking two long journeys around South America, the story of which are told in Guevara’s memoir later published as “The Motorcycle Diaries”. While travelling, Guevara was moved by the plight of the people he saw and their working conditions and what he viewed as capitalistic exploitation. In Mexico City he met brothers Raul and Fidel Castro and was persuaded to join their cause, the overthrow of the US-backed government in Cuba. He rose to second-in-command among the Cuban insurgents, and when Castro came to power Guevara was influential in repelling the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing Soviet nuclear missiles to the island. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to continue his work as a revolutionary. He was captured by Bolivian forces in 1967, and was executed. Fidel Castro led the public mourning of Guevara’s death, and soon the revolutionary was an icon for many left-wing movements around the world.

36. *Entrée MAIN COURSE
“Entrée” means “entry” in French. An entrée can be something that helps one get “a way in”, an interview for example perhaps helped along by a recommendation letter. In Europe, even in English-speaking countries, the entrée is the name for the “entry” to the meal, the first course. I found it very confusing to order meals when I first came to America!

38. Linen fiber source FLAX
Flax is mainly grown for its seeds (to make oil) and for its fibers. Flax fibers have been used to make linen for centuries, certainly back as far as the days of the Ancient Egyptians. Flax fibers are soft and shiny, resembling blonde hair, hence the term “flaxen hair”.

39. Statesman Stevenson ADLAI
Adlai Stevenson (AES) ran for president unsuccessfully against Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and in 1956. Some years after his second defeat, Stevenson served under President Kennedy as Ambassador to the United Nations. Stevenson was always noted for his eloquence and he had a famous exchange in a UN Security Council meeting during the Cuban missile crisis. Stevenson bluntly demanded that the Soviet representative on the council tell the world if the USSR was installing nuclear weapons in Cuba. His words were “Don’t wait for the translation, answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’!” followed by “I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over!”

40. Part of UNLV LAS
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) was established in 1957 as the Southern Division of the University of Nevada, Reno. One of UNLV’s flagship departments is the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, which is consistently ranked as one of the best hotel and hospitality colleges in the nation. I suppose that’s not surprising given the proximity to the Las Vegas Strip.

41. Fly like a parasailer GLIDE
Parasailing is hanging below a tethered parachute that is towed by a boat.

43. *Boxy British economy car MINI COOPER
The original mini was a fabulous car, one that I drove all over Ireland in my youth. It had a unique front-wheel-drive layout that took up very little space, allowing for a lot of room (relatively speaking) for passengers and baggage. One space-saving trick was to mount the engine transversely, so it sits rotated 90 degrees from the norm. That engine had a capacity of only 848cc. In 1961, a Mini Cooper model was introduced, a sporty version of the Mini. The Mini Cooper was a phenomenal hit, especially after repeated wins in the Monte Carlo Rally. The Mini marque has been owned by BMW since 1994.

47. Grounded fast jet, briefly SST
The first supersonic transport (SST) to fly was the Tupolev Tu-144, which was constructed in the Soviet Union. The Tu-144 first flew in 1968, but did not carry passengers until 1977. The aircraft was permanently grounded as a passenger craft in 1978 due to concerns about safety (there had been two Tu-144 crashes). The second SST to fly was the Anglo-French Concorde, which operated at a profit for over 27 years until it was withdrawn from service in 2003. There was one Concorde crash, in Paris in July, 2000. Since then, there have been no commercial SST services.

48. Affordable __ Act CARE
The correct name for what has been dubbed “Obamacare” is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”.

61. *Venue for hypothetical legal cases MOOT COURT
A moot court is a simulated court proceeding engaged in by law students. A moot court is similar to a mock trial, with the former simulating an appellate court or arbitral case, and the latter simulating a jury trial or bench trial. In Anglo-Saxon times, a “moot” was a gathering of prominent men to discuss matters of local importance.

65. Alma __ MATER
The literal translation for the Latin term “alma mater” is “nourishing mother”. “Alma mater” was used in Ancient Rome to refer to mother goddesses, and in Medieval Christianity the term was used to refer to the Virgin Mary. Nowadays, one’s alma mater is the school one attended, either high school or college, usually one’s last place of education.

68. Roast host, and a hint to the answers to starred clues EMCEE
The term “emcee” comes from “MC”, an initialism standing for Master or Mistress of Ceremonies.

Down
1. Victoria’s Secret garment, for short CAMI
A camisole (also “cami”) is a sleeveless undergarment worn by women that extends down to the waist. “Camisole” is a French word that we imported into English, which ultimately derives from the Latin “camisia” meaning “shirt, nightgown”.

Victoria’s Secret was founded in 1977 in San Francisco, California. The founder wanted to create an environment where men were comfortable buying lingerie for their wives or girlfriends, an alternative to a department store.

4. “My Cousin Vinny” co-star JOE PESCI
Joe Pesci got his big break in movies with a supporting role in “Raging Bull” starring Robert De Niro, earning Pesci an Oscar nomination early in his career. There followed a string of gangster roles played alongside De Niro, namely “Once Upon a Time in America”, “Goodfellas” and “Casino”. But I like Pesci’s comedic acting best of all. He was marvelous in the “Home Alone” films, the “Lethal Weapon” series, and my personal favorite, “My Cousin Vinny”. Pesci gets a mention in the stage musical “Jersey Boys”, which isn’t too surprising as he is one of the show’s producers.

“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”!

5. Post-apartheid ruling party: Abbr. ANC
The African National Congress (ANC) started out as the South African Native National Congress in 1912 with the goal of improving the lot of Black South Africans. After years of turmoil, the ANC came to power in the country’s first open election in 1964.

6. Prefix with conservative NEO-
By definition, a neoconservative supports the use of American power and military to bring democracy, liberty, equality and human rights to other countries.

10. Central Florida city OCALA
The city of Ocala, Florida was founded near a historic village with the same name. In the local Timucua language “Ocala” means “Big Hammock”. Back in the 1890s, Ocala was famous for its oranges, with over one third of that fruit shipped from Florida coming from the city. Also, thoroughbred horse farming in Florida started in Ocala, back in 1943. Some folks today call Ocala the “Horse Capital of the World”, but I bet that’s disputed by others …

12. Zing ELAN
Our word “élan” was imported from French, in which language the word has a similar meaning to ours i.e “style” or “flair”.

22. Church recess APSE
The apse of a church or cathedral is a semicircular recess in an outer wall, usually with a half-dome as a roof and often where there resides an altar. Originally apses were used as burial places for the clergy and also for storage of important relics.

24. Vintage vehicle REO
The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom E. Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale and the REO Flying Cloud.

25. One of Tony Soprano’s henchmen PAULIE
Paulie Gualtieri is a character in the marvelous HBO crime drama “The Sopranos”. Early in the series, Paulie is a soldier in the Soprano crime family, but by the end of the series he has risen through the ranks to become underboss. The character is played by actor Tony Sirico.

27. Mutual of __ OMAHA
The insurance and financial services company called Mutual of Omaha was founded in 1909 as Mutual Benefit Health and Accident Association. Famously, Mutual of Omaha sponsored the television show “Wild Kingdom” from 1963 to 1988. “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” was resurrected in 2002 and can now be seen on the Animal Planet cable channel.

29. *Hannah Montana portrayer MILEY CYRUS
Miley Cyrus became famous playing the Disney Channel character “Hannah Montana”. Miley is of course the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. When she was born, Billy Ray and his wife named their daughter “Destiny Hope”, but soon they themselves calling her “Smiley” as she was always smiling as a baby, and this got shortened to Miley over time. Cute …

32. St. Francis of __ ASSISI
St. Francis founded the Franciscan religious order in Assisi in 1208. He died in 1226, and was declared a saint just two years later in 1228.

34. Greek god of the underworld HADES
Hades was the god of the underworld to the ancient Greeks. Over time, Hades gave his name to the underworld itself, the place where the dead reside. The term “Hades” was also adopted into the Christian tradition, as an alternative name for hell. But, the concept of hell in Christianity is more akin to the Greek “Tartarus”, which is a dark and gloomy dungeon located in Hades, a place of suffering and torment.

38. Showman Ziegfeld FLO
Florenz “Flo” Ziegfeld, Jr. was the man behind the series of theatrical revues called the “Ziegfeld Follies”, as well as the producer of the musical “Show Boat”. The “Follies” shows were structured as imitations of the “Folies Bergère” cabaret shows of Paris.

41. Devout term for a churchyard GOD’S ACRE
A graveyard is sometimes referred to as “God’s Acre”, which is a term that originated in Germany as “Gottesacker”, meaning “Field of God”. The name comes from the belief in some Christian traditions that the bodies of the dead are in effect like seeds, sown in a field so that they can rise again when Jesus Christ returns to the world.

43. TV “neigh” sayer MR ED
The sitcom “Mister Ed” first aired in 1961 and ran for almost five years. It was a very successful show (and even made it to Ireland!). Mister Ed, the talking horse, was a palomino that had the real name of Bamboo Harvester. Mister Ed’s “voice” was that of actor Allan “Rocky” Lane, a star of a lot of B-movie westerns from the forties and fifties. In the show, Mister Ed would only talk to the lead (human) character Wilbur, played by Alan Young, leading to some hilarious situations. Mister Ed had a stunt double and stand-in for the show, another horse called Pumpkin. Pumpkin later played the horse that made frequent appearances on the show “Green Acres”.

44. These, in Nice CES
The French city of Nice is on the Mediterranean coast in the southeast of the country. Although Nice is only the fifth most populous city in France, it is home to the busiest airport outside of Paris. That’s because of all the tourists flocking to the French Riviera.

51. Kitchenware brand OXO
The OXO line of kitchen utensils is designed to be ergonomically superior to the average kitchen too. The intended user of OXO products is someone who doesn’t have the normal range of motion or strength in the hands e.g. someone suffering from arthritis.

52. Bit of mockery JAPE
“To jape” means “to joke or quip”. The exact origins of “jape” are unclear, but it does seem to come from Old French. In the mid-1600’s “to jape” was a slang term meaning “to have sex with”. No joke!

53. Andean stew tubers OCAS
The plant called an oca is also known as the New Zealand Yam. The tubers of the oca are used as a root vegetable.

54. Buxom one-named supermodel EMME
Emme is the highest paid plus-size model in the world. Emme’s real name is Melissa Aronson, and she was born in New York City and raised in Saudi Arabia.

55. What the buffalo do, in song ROAM
The words of “Home on the Range” came before the music, a poem called “My Western Home” from the 1870s written by a Dr. Brewster Higley of Kansas. The music was added by Daniel Kelley, a friend of Higley. And now, a version of is the state song of Kansas.

58. “CHiPs” star Estrada ERIK
Actor Erik Estrada got his big break in the movie “Airport 1975”, before playing motorcycle police officer Poncherello on the television show “CHiPs” from 1977-81.

62. Non-Rx OTC
Over-the-counter (OTC)

There seems to some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx” that’s used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help a patient recover.

63. Golfer’s gadget … or where it’s used TEE
In the game of golf, a “tee” is the wooden or plastic peg on which one can place a ball when “teeing off”. Also, the “teeing ground” (sometimes “tee” or “tee box”) is the area at the beginning of the hole from which the first stroke is taken, from where one tees off.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Gear tooth COG
4. Scotch whisky brand J AND B
9. Apples, e.g. POMES
14. Sushi bar tuna AHI
15. “Inside the NBA” analyst Shaq O’NEAL
16. Scary bacteria E COLI
17. *Dots-and-dashes system MORSE CODE
19. Charged toward RAN AT
20. Long Island airport town ISLIP
21. “Divergent” star Woodley SHAILENE
23. Robber, to cops PERP
26. Join the game PLAY
27. Electrical unit of resistance OHM
30. Fish market offering SEA BASS
33. Revolutionary Guevara CHE
36. *Entrée MAIN COURSE
38. Linen fiber source FLAX
39. Statesman Stevenson ADLAI
40. Part of UNLV LAS
41. Fly like a parasailer GLIDE
42. Weed-control tools HOES
43. *Boxy British economy car MINI COOPER
45. “Take your pick” ANY
46. Ironed PRESSED
47. Grounded fast jet, briefly SST
48. Affordable __ Act CARE
50. “This __ unfair!” IS SO
52. Car thief on a pleasure spin JOYRIDER
56. Car wheel shafts AXLES
60. Offensively pungent ACRID
61. *Venue for hypothetical legal cases MOOT COURT
64. Stop to think, say PAUSE
65. Alma __ MATER
66. Word in itineraries VIA
67. Tricky road curves ESSES
68. Roast host, and a hint to the answers to starred clues EMCEE
69. Wild blue yonder SKY

Down
1. Victoria’s Secret garment, for short CAMI
2. Cries of discovery OHOS
3. “You go, __!” GIRL
4. “My Cousin Vinny” co-star JOE PESCI
5. Post-apartheid ruling party: Abbr. ANC
6. Prefix with conservative NEO-
7. Father figures DADS
8. “Ick!” BLEH!
9. Hazards PERILS
10. Central Florida city OCALA
11. *Wallet alternatives MONEY CLIPS
12. Zing ELAN
13. Web browsing destination SITE
18. Dainty taste SIP
22. Church recess APSE
24. Vintage vehicle REO
25. One of Tony Soprano’s henchmen PAULIE
27. Mutual of __ OMAHA
28. Was wearing HAD ON
29. *Hannah Montana portrayer MILEY CYRUS
31. Fiber-rich cereals BRANS
32. St. Francis of __ ASSISI
34. Greek god of the underworld HADES
35. Use, as influence EXERT
37. __ in November N AS
38. Showman Ziegfeld FLO
41. Devout term for a churchyard GOD’S ACRE
43. TV “neigh” sayer MR ED
44. These, in Nice CES
46. Lion family units PRIDES
49. Roll out of the sack ARISE
51. Kitchenware brand OXO
52. Bit of mockery JAPE
53. Andean stew tubers OCAS
54. Buxom one-named supermodel EMME
55. What the buffalo do, in song ROAM
57. Disposable diapers brand LUVS
58. “CHiPs” star Estrada ERIK
59. Time at a motel STAY
62. Non-Rx OTC
63. Golfer’s gadget … or where it’s used TEE

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