LA Times Crossword Answers 26 Mar 15, Thursday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Frank Virzi
THEME: Starter Home … each of today’s themed answer STARTS with a word often seen following HOME:

55A. Fixer-upper, perhaps, and a hint to the answers to starred clues STARTER HOME

20A. *Last president who was a Founding Father JAMES MONROE (giving “Home, James!”)
36A. *Limp cause GAME LEG (giving “home game”)
3D. *In the low 70s, usually ROOM TEMPERATURE (giving “home room”)
7D. *Feature of most cars nowadays FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE (giving “home front”)
11D. *On one’s own ALONE IN THE WORLD (giving “Home Alone”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 7m 05s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Big name in ATMs NCR
NCR is an American company that has been in business since 1884, originally called the National Cash Register Company. The company has done well in a market where new technologies seem to be constantly disrupting the status quo.

14. Worldwide workers’ agcy. ILO
The ILO (International Labour Organization) is an agency now administered by the UN which was established by the League of Nations after WWI. The ILO deals with important issues such as health and safety, discrimination, child labor and forced labor. The organization was recognized for its work in 1969 when it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

16. Brooklyn Bridge features CABLES
The famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York City spans the East River and connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The structures current name was not its first. It was originally known as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge when it was completed in 1883. The name was later changed to the East River Bridge, before being officially dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge in 1915.

17. “The Matrix” hero NEO
Keanu Reeves is a Canadian actor whose most celebrated roles were a metalhead in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989), a cop in “Speed” (1994) and the main antagonist Neo in “The Matrix” series of films. Although Reeves is a Canadian national, he was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Reeves has some Hawaiian descent, and the name “Keanu” is Hawaiian for “the coldness”.

The 1999 movie sensation “The Matrix” was meant to be set in a nondescript urban environment. It was actually shot in Australia, as one of the co-producers of the film was the Australian company, Village Roadshow Pictures. You can pick up all sorts of clues about the location when watching the film, including a view of Sydney Harbour Bridge in a background shot. Also, traffic drives along on the left and there are signs for the “lift” instead of an “elevator”.

18. Utah lily SEGO
The Sego Lily is the state flower of Utah, and is a perennial plant found throughout the Western United States.

20. *Last president who was a Founding Father JAMES MONROE (giving “Home, James!”)
James Monroe was the fifth US President, and the last of the Founding Fathers to hold the highest office. Famously, he presided over the Era of Good Feelings, when there was very little partisan strife in Washington. President Monroe racked up a lot of debt while in politics and so when he retired he had to sell off a lot of his property and struggled financially for the remainder of his life. Monroe was one of three US presidents to pass away on American Independence Day (along with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams). Monroe died on July 4th 1831.

The expression “Home, James!” is often used satirically by a passenger to a driver, creating the impression that the driver is the passenger’s personal chauffeur. The words have reportedly been used in movies, in the forms “Home, James, and don’t spare the horses!” and “Once around the park and home, James”.

23. Not from a Scot NAE
Nae is the Scottish vernacular for “no” and “not”.

24. Fifth-century leader succeeded by his son Ellac ATTILA
Ellac was oldest son of Attila the Hun, and his successor as leader of the Hunnic Empire. Whereas Attila ruled for almost twenty years, Ellac’s reign ended after just two years, when he was killed in the Battle of Nedao in 454 CE.

25. __ Aviv TEL
The full name of Israel’s second largest city is Tel Aviv-Yafo. Tel Aviv translates into “Spring Mound”, a name chosen in 1910.

27. Sportscaster Andrews ERIN
Erin Andrews is a sports reporter. I don’t watch much in the line of sports but I do know Ms. Andrews for her appearances on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2010. She did quite well and made it to the final of the show.

28. New Deal org. WPA
The Work Progress Administration (WPA) was the largest of the New Deal agencies. The WPA employed millions of people during the Depression, putting them to work on various public works projects. The total spending through the WPA from 1936 to 1939 was nearly $7 billion. We have to give the federal government credit for taking an enlightened view of what types of project qualified for financial support, so artists who could not get commissions privately were hired by the government itself. The result is a collection of “New Deal Art”, including a series of murals that can be found in post offices around the country to this day.

31. Smith students WOMEN
Smith College is a private women’s school in Northampton, Massachusetts. Smith was founded in 1870 using funds bequeathed by Sophia Smith.

34. Memo words IN RE
The term “in re” is Latin, derived from “in” (in) and “res” (thing, matter). “In re” literally means “in the matter”, and is used to mean “in regard to”, or “in the matter of”.

40. Hold ’em tell, maybe TIC
The official birthplace of the incredibly popular poker game of Texas Hold ‘Em is Robstown, Texas where the game dates back to the early 1900s. The game was introduced into Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan enthusiasts including Doyle Brunson, a champion often seen playing on TV today. Doyle Brunson published a poker strategy guide in 1978, and this really helped increase the popularity of the game. But it was the inclusion of Texas Hold ‘Em in the television line-up that really gave the game its explosive surge in popularity, with the size of the prize money just skyrocketing.

41. Ingredient in Off! DEET
DEET is short for N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide, an active ingredient in insect repellents. DEET is most often used to repel mosquitoes by applying it to the skin and/or clothing. It is also used to protect against tick bites.

43. Top-row poet on the “Sgt. Pepper” album cover POE
Edgar Allan Poe lived a life of many firsts. Poe is considered to be the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He was also the first notable American author to make his living through his writing, something that didn’t really go too well for him as he was always financially strapped. In 1849 he was found on the streets of Baltimore, delirious from either drugs or alcohol. Poe died a few days later in hospital at 39 years of age.

When the Beatles released their iconic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band” album in 1967, the typical cost for cover art was about fifty UK pounds. The Beatles’ album cover cast a staggering three thousand pounds. The idea for the artwork came from Paul McCartney, who provided an ink drawing to pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth who came up with the final design. The cover was photographed by Michael Cooper, who was famous for photographing the Rolling Stones. In the “Sgt. Pepper” cover photo, the band members are surrounded by 9 waxworks and 57 life-size cardboard cut-outs of famous people, a group carefully chosen by the Beatles. Elvis isn’t included in the mix, as he was considered “too important”. Also left out were Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ, both of whom had been suggested by John Lennon.

47. Party person POL
Politician (pol.)

48. Spillane’s “__ Jury” I, THE
“I, The Jury” is the first novel in the “Mike Hammer” series written by Mickey Spillane. The story was filmed twice, once in 1953 with Biff Elliot playing Hammer, and again in 1982 with Armand Assante taking the lead.

49. Org. that produces the magazines Highroads and Journey AAA
The American Automobile Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit organization focused on lobbying, provision of automobile servicing, and selling of automobile insurance. The AAA was founded in 1902 in Chicago and published the first of its celebrated hotel guides back in 1917.

“Highroads” is a magazine published by AAA in Arizona, and “Journey” is published by AAA in Washington state.

51. Risk being caught off base GO AWOL
Absent without leave (AWOL)

54. Grisham hero, often: Abbr. ATT
John Grisham is famous as an author of legal thrillers. He also practiced law for about ten years, and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives for several years. Grisham’s long string of bestsellers includes “The Firm”, “The Pelican Brief” and my personal favorite, “The Runaway Jury”.

57. Only reigning pope to write an autobiography PIUS II
Pope Pius II was in charge of the Roman Catholic church from 1458 until he dies in 1464. Pope Pius II wrote lots of books, and his most enduring title is “Commentaries”, a 13-volume work that was his autobiography. It was published long after his death, in 1584. Pius II is the only pope to have written an autobiography.

59. Tiny bit IOTA
Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. We use the word “iota” to portray something very small as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.

63. T size LGE
Large (lge.)

66. Patriotic gp. since 1890 DAR
In order to be a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), an applicant has to prove that she is a descendant of someone closely associated with, and supportive of, the American Revolution. The DAR maintains an online database of Revolutionary War patriots. The database is searchable, and is known as the Patriot Index.

Down
1. Turtle in a 2014 film NINJA
The “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” started out as a parody of comic book superheroes, first appearing in a self-published comic book in 1984. A couple of years later the characters were picked up by someone who built a whole line toys around the characters, and then television and movies followed. Do you remember the names of all four of the Turtles? Their names were all taken from Renaissance artists:

– Leonardo
– Raphael
– Michelangelo
– Donatello

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” is a 2014 movie that was panned by almost everyone, it seems, and yet made a fortune at the box office. It is highest grossing film ever made by Nickelodeon Movies, bringing in almost $500 million.

5. Hypothetical primate APE-MAN
The term “missing link” is usually applied to the concept that there existed some form of animal that is a hybrid between apes and humans. The idea that there was some “ape-man” is discounted these days by the scientific community, which now favors the theory of evolution.

6. Titicaca, por ejemplo LAGO
In Spanish, Titicaca for example (por ejemplo) is a lake (lago).

Lake Titicaca is the largest lake in South America, and the highest navigable lake in the world (navigable by “large” commercial vessels). Lake Titicaca is located in the Andes, on the border between Peru and Bolivia.

10. Wall St. news LBO
A leveraged buyout (LBO) is a transaction in which an investor acquires a controlling volume of stock in a company, but buys that stock with borrowed funds (hence “leveraged”). Often the assets of the acquired company are used as collateral for the borrowed money. There is a special form of LBO known as a management buyout (MBO) in which the company’s own management team purchases the controlling interest.

11. *On one’s own ALONE IN THE WORLD (giving “Home Alone”)
“Home Alone” is a 1990 film starring Macaulay Culkin that has become a Christmas classic. Culkin was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe for his performance, the youngest actor ever to be so honored.

12. Varied mixture MENAGERIE
A “menagerie” is a varied group, and particularly refers to a collection of wild or unusual animals. The term comes from the French “ménagerie”, which described housing for domestic animals.

13. To be, to Ovid ESSE
“Esse” is the Latin for “to be”. “Sum” means “I am” and “erat” means “he, she was”.

The Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso is today known simply as Ovid. Ovid is usually listed alongside the two other great Roman poets: Horace and Virgil. Ovid was very popular in his day, but somehow he fell foul of Emperor Augustus. For a reason unknown today, Augustus banished Ovid to Tomis, an island in the Black Sea. He lived there for about ten years, until he died.

21. Cork’s location EIRE
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland. Cork has been a major port for many years, and was the last port of call for many, many Irish emigrants to America. When these Irish people reached the US it was common for them to give their point of origin as “Cork”, whereas they may have come from almost anywhere in Ireland. It’s because of this that many descendants of Irish immigrants who had been told they were from a Cork family often find out they were under a misapprehension as their ancestors just sailed from Cork.

26. Chi follows it PHI
Phi is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet.

31. Dwyane of the Miami Heat WADE
Dwyane Wade is a basketball player with the Miami Heat. Wade was chosen as the “Sports Illustrated” Sportsman of the Year in 2006.

38. Dinero MOOLA
Lettuce, cabbage, kale, dough, scratch, simoleons, clams and moola are all slang terms for money.

Dinero is the Spanish word for money, as well as a slang term for money here in the US.

39. Winning football coach’s surprise GATORADE
Gatorade was developed at the University of Florida by a team of researchers at the request of the school’s football team. And so, Gatorade is named after the Gators football team.

42. Airport screening org. TSA
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created in 2001, soon after the 9/11 attacks.

45. Persian for “king” SHAH
The last Shah of Iran was Mohammed-Reza Shah Pahlavi, as he was overthrown in the revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. The post-revolution government sought the extradition of the Shah back to Iran while he was in the United States seeking medical care (he had cancer). His prolonged stay in the United States, recovering from surgery, caused some unrest back in Iran and resentment towards the United States. Some say that this resentment precipitated the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran and the resulting hostage crisis.

52. Greek finale OMEGA
Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. The uppercase omega resembles a horseshoe in shape, and the lowercase omega looks like a rounded version of our letter W.

54. Lhasa __ APSO
The Lhasa apso breed of dog originated in Tibet and is named after “Lhasa” (the capital city) and “apso” (a Tibetan word meaning “bearded”). The Lhasa apso has been around since 800 BC and is one of the oldest breeds in the world, one very closely related to the ancestral wolf.

58. His, to Henri SES
“Ses” is the French word for “his”, “her” or “its”, when referring to a group of items.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Big name in ATMs NCR
4. Ten to twenty? HALF
8. On fire AFLAME
14. Worldwide workers’ agcy. ILO
15. On __ with A PAR
16. Brooklyn Bridge features CABLES
17. “The Matrix” hero NEO
18. Utah lily SEGO
19. Delivers an old standard, perhaps CROONS
20. *Last president who was a Founding Father JAMES MONROE (giving “Home, James!”)
23. Not from a Scot NAE
24. Fifth-century leader succeeded by his son Ellac ATTILA
25. __ Aviv TEL
26. Tent holder PEG
27. Sportscaster Andrews ERIN
28. New Deal org. WPA
29. Hustles HIES
31. Smith students WOMEN
33. “If only __ listened!” HE’D
34. Memo words IN RE
35. Smartphone buy APP
36. *Limp cause GAME LEG (giving “home game”)
40. Hold ’em tell, maybe TIC
41. Ingredient in Off! DEET
43. Top-row poet on the “Sgt. Pepper” album cover POE
44. Remains at the campsite ASHES
46. Misses the mark ERRS
47. Party person POL
48. Spillane’s “__ Jury” I, THE
49. Org. that produces the magazines Highroads and Journey AAA
50. The past, in the past ELD
51. Risk being caught off base GO AWOL
54. Grisham hero, often: Abbr. ATT
55. Fixer-upper, perhaps, and a hint to the answers to starred clues STARTER HOME
57. Only reigning pope to write an autobiography PIUS II
59. Tiny bit IOTA
60. Gun, as an engine REV
61. Most irritated SOREST
62. Emptiness VOID
63. T size LGE
64. Baby’s outfit ONESIE
65. Luncheon ender -ETTE
66. Patriotic gp. since 1890 DAR

Down
1. Turtle in a 2014 film NINJA
2. Soccer shoe feature CLEAT
3. *In the low 70s, usually ROOM TEMPERATURE (giving “home room”)
4. Bit of sibling rivalry HASSLING
5. Hypothetical primate APE-MAN
6. Titicaca, por ejemplo LAGO
7. *Feature of most cars nowadays FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE (giving “home front”)
8. Honor ACCOLADE
9. Charge for a ride FARE
10. Wall St. news LBO
11. *On one’s own ALONE IN THE WORLD (giving “Home Alone”)
12. Varied mixture MENAGERIE
13. To be, to Ovid ESSE
21. Cork’s location EIRE
22. Opposite of attract REPEL
26. Chi follows it PHI
30. “Just a few __” SECS
31. Dwyane of the Miami Heat WADE
32. Mathematical process OPERATION
37. Good thing to have before a meal APPETITE
38. Dinero MOOLA
39. Winning football coach’s surprise GATORADE
42. Airport screening org. TSA
45. Persian for “king” SHAH
48. ”Of course!” I GET IT!
52. Greek finale OMEGA
53. Piano keyboard component LEVER
54. Lhasa __ APSO
55. Spanish ayes SI SI
56. Warning sound TOOT!
58. His, to Henri SES

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