LA Times Crossword Answers 2 Mar 15, Monday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Roland Huget
THEME: Colorful Actions … each of today’s themed answers is a verb that starts with a color:

17A. Give the okay GREEN-LIGHT
27A. Bring lunch from home, say BROWN-BAG
46A. Dismiss from the job PINK-SLIP
59A. Alter a manuscript, e.g. BLUE-PENCIL
11D. Gloss over WHITEWASH
34D. Ostracize BLACKLIST

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 32s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

5. Channel with a “Congressional Chronicle” online archive C-SPAN
C-SPAN is a privately-funded, non-profit cable channel that broadcasts continuous coverage of government proceedings.

C-SPAN Video Library is an amazing online archive provided by C-SPAN that offers a complete audio and video archive of Congressional proceedings going back to 1987. Users can search the archive for free, by topic, speaker date and more. When the site was launched in 2010, the archive already contained 160,000 hours of programming. “Congressional Chronicle” is a section of the archive that is particularly easy to navigate.

14. Hawkeye State IOWA
Iowa is nicknamed the Hawkeye State in honor of Chief Black Hawk, a leader of the Sauk people during the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War.

15. Curly-tailed Japanese dog AKITA
The Akita breed of dog is named for its point of origin, the Akita Prefecture in Japan. When Helen Keller visited Japan in 1937, she asked for and was given an Akita breed of dog, with the name of Kamikaze-go. Sadly, the dog died within a year from distemper. The following year the Japanese government officially presented Keller with a replacement dog. Supposedly Keller’s dogs were the first members of the breed to be introduced into the US.

16. Old conductance units MHOS
Conductance (measured in mhos) is the inverse of resistance (measured in ohms). The mho has been replaced by the SI unit called the siemens.

20. Move it, old-style HIE
“To hie” is to move quickly, to bolt.

21. Thames islands AITS
Aits are little islands found in a river. Aits aren’t formed by erosion, but by the deposition of silt over time. As a result, aits often have a long and narrow shape running parallel to the banks as the sediment builds up with the flow of the water. Many of the islands in the River Thames in England have been given the name “Ait”, like Raven’s Ait in Kingston-upon-Thames, and Lot’s Ait in Brentford.

22. Northern Ireland province ULSTER
Ireland is divided into four provinces: Leinster, Munster, Connacht and Ulster. “Ulster” is sometimes used as a synonym for Northern Ireland, but in fact Ulster is comprised of the six counties of Northern Ireland and three more, namely Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.

29. __-Mart Stores, Inc. WAL
Walmart (previously “Wal-Mart”) takes in more revenue than any other publicly traded company in the world. Over in my homeland, Walmart operates under the name Asda. Walmart’s worldwide headquarters are in Bentonville, Arkansas, the home of Sam Walton’s original Five and Dime. You can actually go into the original store, as it is now the Walmart Visitor Center. Note that today’s Walmart stores are owned and operated by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (note the hyphen).

35. Christmastide YULE
“Yule” celebrations coincide with Christmas, and the words “Christmas” and “Yule” have become synonymous in much of the world. However, Yule was originally a pagan festival celebrated by Germanic peoples. The name “Yule” comes from the Old Norse word “jol” that was used to describe the festival.

36. Boxing legend ALI
One of Muhammad Ali’s famous most famous lines is “I am the greatest!” So famous is the line that in 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word that had the title “I Am the Greatest!”

38. Tit for __ TAT
The phrase “tit for tat”, meaning some sort of retaliation, has been around an awfully long time, since the mid-1500s. It might be derived from “tip for tap”, meaning “blow for blow”.

39. Baking amts. TSPS
Teaspoon (tsp.)

40. Pie __ mode A LA
In French, “à la mode” simply means “fashionable”. In America, the term has also come to describe a way of serving pie, usually with ice cream, or as I recall from when I lived in Upstate New York, with cheese.

41. “Never Wave at __”: 1952 film A WAC
“Never Wave at a WAC” is a 1952 comedy starring Rosalind Russell. Russell plays a senator’s daughter who asks her father to get her a commission in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) so that she can be close to her boyfriend. The senator thinks that it’s a better idea for her become an enlisted soldier, so Russell’s character ends up in basic training. Hilarity ensues …

The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was formed in 1942, and the unit was converted to full status the following year to become the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Famously, General Douglas MacArthur referred to the WACs as his “best soldiers”, saying they worked harder, complained less and were better disciplined than men. The WACs were disbanded in 1978 and the serving members were integrated into the rest of the army.

43. Tread water to check out the surroundings, as a whale SPYHOP
“Spyhopping” is the name given to the maneuver made by a whale when it “stands” vertically in the water so that it can take a look at what’s happening on the surface. Spyhopping is the equivalent of a human’s treading water.

45. DVR button REC
Digital Video Recorder (DVR)

46. Dismiss from the job PINK-SLIP
The term “pink-slip” can be used as a verb meaning “to terminate an employee”. No one really seems to know for sure where the term originated, but there are lots of stories.

48. “Hogan’s Heroes” colonel KLINK
On the sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes”, Colonel Klink was the Camp Commandant, played by Werner Klemperer. Klemperer was born in Cologne in Germany, and fled the country with his family in 1935 due to Nazi persecution of Jews. Later, Klemperer joined the US Army and ended up using his show business talent to entertain the troops in the Pacific. Werner was the son of renowned conductor Otto Klemperer.

“Hogan’s Heroes” is a sitcom that ran in the late sixties and early seventies. The show starred Bob Crane as the ranking prisoner in a German POW camp during WWII. The four major German roles were played by actors who all were Jewish, and who all fled from the Nazis during the war. In fact, the Sergeant Schultz character was played by John Banner, who spent three years in a concentration camp.

50. Oft-rented suits TUXEDOS
The style of men’s evening dress called a “tuxedo” was apparently first worn to a country club event in 1886 in New York. The use of a dark dinner jacket without tails became fashionable at the club with the members, and the tradition spread from there. The country club was located in Tuxedo Park, New York, giving the style of dress its name.

56. Spice Girl Halliwell GERI
Geri Halliwell was called Ginger Spice because of her red hair when she was with the Spice Girls. Halliwell was quite a bit older than the rest of the group and so sometimes she was less charitably referred to as “Old Spice”.

59. Alter a manuscript, e.g. BLUE-PENCIL
The tradition is that an editor writes corrections to written copy using a blue pencil. The practise arose with the introduction of the “non-photo blue” pencil, which had a color that did not show up in some photographic reproduction processes.

62. Savior in a Bach cantata JESU
The Bach cantata “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben” (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life) has ten movements. The most famous of these movements is the last one, a chorale titled “Jesus bleibet meine Freude”, usually translated as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.

64. Kitchenware brand EKCO
The EKCO name dates back to 1888 when Edward Katzinger founded his company in Chicago, to make baking pans. The acronym EKCO stands for “Edward Katzinger Co”.

Down
2. “Road __”: 1947 Hope/Crosby film TO RIO
“Road to Rio” is the fifth of the “Road” series of films that starred Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. “Road to Rio” was released in 1947, and was the only movie in which Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters appeared on screen together.

3. Nerdy sort DWEEB
Dweeb, squarepants, nerd … all are not nice terms that mean the same thing, someone excessively studious and socially inept.

4. Enc. with some bills SAE
A stamped addressed envelope (SAE) might be included as an enclose (enc.) with a bill.

5. Colorful cats CALICOS
Domestic cats with a white coat and patches of brown and black are called calico cats in this country. In Ireland, and the rest of the world I think, such cats are called tortoiseshell-and-white. “Calico” is not a breed of cat, simply a coloring.

13. River of Flanders YSER
The Yser originates in northern France and flows through Belgium into the North Sea. The Yser is often associated with WWI as it figured in a major battle early in the conflict. In the first three months of the war, the German Army pushed almost completely through Belgium, inflicting heavy losses on the Belgian Army as the defenders were forced to fight a fast-moving rearguard action. The Germans were intent on pushing right through Belgium and across France in a “race to the sea”. But the Belgians, with the help of their Allies, decided to make a final stand at the Yser Canal in an effort to prevent the Germans reaching the French ports of Calais and Dunkirk. The 22-mile long defensive line was chosen at the Yser because the river and canal system could be flooded to create a barrier that might be defended. The plan was successful and the front was “stabilized”. As we now know, millions of lives were lost over the coming years with very little movement of that battle line.

Flanders is a region in northern Belgium where the native people speak Dutch. The people from Flanders are referred to as “Flemish”.

18. Mother-of-pearl NACRE
Mother-of-pearl is another name for nacre. Nacre is the strong iridescent material laid down by some mollusks on the inside of their shells, and it’s also what makes up pearls. The creature lays down nacre as a defensive mechanism, protecting the soft tissue of its body from the rough surface of the outer shell. Similarly, it uses nacre to encapsulate harmful debris or a parasite that penetrates the shell, and that’s how a pearl is formed.

23. Theater box LOGE
In most theaters today, “loge” is the name given to the front rows of a mezzanine level. Loge can also be the name given to box seating.

28. New York City suburb on the Hudson NYACK
The village of Nyack is a suburb of New York City located on the western shore of the Hudson River, close to the western side of the Tappan Zee Bridge. Realist painter Edward Hopper used to live in Nyack, and the village is home to the Edward Hopper House Arts Center.

30. Dog food brand ALPO
Alpo is a brand of dog food first produced by Allen Products in 1936, with “Alpo” being an abbreviation for “Allen Products”. Lorne Greene used to push Alpo in television spots, as did Ed McMahon and Garfield the Cat, would you believe?

34. Ostracize BLACKLIST
The practice of ostracism, freezing out or exclusion, dates back to Ancient Greece. Back then citizens could write the names of men they thought were sufficiently dangerous on tiles that were publicly posted, resulting in a banishment of ten years. “Ostracize” derives from the Greek “ostrakon”, the word for a “tile”.

38. Propane container TANK
The “smaller” alkanes are gases and are quite combustible. Methane (CH4) is the main component of natural gas with ethane (C2H6) being the second largest component. Propane (C3H8) is also found in natural gas and is heavy enough to be readily turned into a liquid by compression, for ease of transportation and storage. Butane (C4H10) is also easily liquefied under pressure and can be used as the fuel in cigarette lighters or as the propellant in aerosol sprays. The heavier alkanes are liquids and solids at room temperature.

41. Samoan capital APIA
Apia is the capital city, and in fact the only city, of the Pacific island-nation of Samoa. The harbor of Apia is famous for a very foolish incident in 1889 involving seven naval vessels from Germany, the US and Britain. A typhoon was approaching so the safest thing to do was to head for open water away from land, but no nation would move its ships for fear of losing face in front of the others. Six of the ships were lost in the typhoon as a result and 200 American and German sailors perished. The British cruiser HMS Calliope barely managed to escape from the harbor and rode out the storm safely.

47. “Remington __”: ’80s TV detective show STEELE
The eighties detective show “Remington Steele” stars Stephanie Zimbalist as a private detective, and Pierce Brosnan as the handsome bad boy, who’s really a good boy. The show is unusual in that it melds the detective genre with elements of romantic comedy.

49. Cross-legged meditation position LOTUS
“Asana” is a Sanskrit word literally meaning “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

51. Dr. Mallard’s apt nickname on “NCIS” DUCKY
In the police drama “NCIS”, the character Donald “Ducky” Mallard is the chief medical examiner, played by David McCallum.

Scottish actor David McCallum got his big break playing Illya Kuryakin on “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”, alongside Robert Vaughn playing Napoleon Solo. McCallum also appeared in the 1963 movie “The Great Escape”, working with Charles Bronson. There was good and bad about this project, as after McCallum introduced his wife Jill Ireland to Bronson, Ireland left her husband and married Bronson five years later.

53. Storage towers SILOS
Silo is a Spanish word that we absorbed into English, originally coming from the Greek word “siros” that described a pit in which one kept grain.

54. Indian royal RAJA
“Raja” (also “rajah”) is word derived from Sanskrit that is used particularly in India for a monarch or princely ruler. The female form is “rani” (also “ranee”) and is used for a raja’s wife.

60. __ Fáil: Irish coronation stone LIA
The “Lia Fáil” is the coronation stone that is found on the Hill of Tara, the traditional seat of the High Kings of Ireland. “Lia Fáil” translates from Irish as “stone of destiny”.

61. Actor Beatty NED
Ned Beatty is probably best remembered for the rather disturbing “squeal like a pig” scene in the movie “Deliverance”. Beatty also earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1976 movie “Network”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Norms: Abbr. STDS
5. Channel with a “Congressional Chronicle” online archive C-SPAN
10. In an unexpected direction AWRY
14. Hawkeye State IOWA
15. Curly-tailed Japanese dog AKITA
16. Old conductance units MHOS
17. Give the okay GREEN-LIGHT
19. Trusted assistant AIDE
20. Move it, old-style HIE
21. Thames islands AITS
22. Northern Ireland province ULSTER
24. Leaves for a cigar TOBACCO
26. Came up AROSE
27. Bring lunch from home, say BROWN-BAG
29. __-Mart Stores, Inc. WAL
32. Walks leisurely AMBLES
35. Christmastide YULE
36. Boxing legend ALI
37. Manicurist’s tool FILE
38. Tit for __ TAT
39. Baking amts. TSPS
40. Pie __ mode A LA
41. “Never Wave at __”: 1952 film A WAC
43. Tread water to check out the surroundings, as a whale SPYHOP
45. DVR button REC
46. Dismiss from the job PINK-SLIP
48. “Hogan’s Heroes” colonel KLINK
50. Oft-rented suits TUXEDOS
54. Insert new film RELOAD
56. Spice Girl Halliwell GERI
57. One: Pref. UNI-
58. Settled on the ground ALIT
59. Alter a manuscript, e.g. BLUE-PENCIL
62. Savior in a Bach cantata JESU
63. Path for a drink cart AISLE
64. Kitchenware brand EKCO
65. Play segments ACTS
66. Like some private communities GATED
67. Coloring agents DYES

Down
1. Vision SIGHT
2. “Road __”: 1947 Hope/Crosby film TO RIO
3. Nerdy sort DWEEB
4. Enc. with some bills SAE
5. Colorful cats CALICOS
6. Chair lift alternative SKI TOW
7. Sty residents PIGS
8. Sports fig. ATH
9. Kin of organic, at the grocery store NATURAL
10. Stockpile AMASS
11. Gloss over WHITEWASH
12. Went by scooter RODE
13. River of Flanders YSER
18. Mother-of-pearl NACRE
23. Theater box LOGE
25. Equal to the task ABLE
26. Border on ABUT
28. New York City suburb on the Hudson NYACK
30. Dog food brand ALPO
31. Speech problem LISP
32. At a distance AFAR
33. Runner’s distance MILE
34. Ostracize BLACKLIST
38. Propane container TANK
39. Use a keypad TYPE
41. Samoan capital APIA
42. Blowhard WINDBAG
43. Ate noisily, as soup SLURPED
44. Playful sprite PIXIE
47. “Remington __”: ’80s TV detective show STEELE
49. Cross-legged meditation position LOTUS
51. Dr. Mallard’s apt nickname on “NCIS” DUCKY
52. Chilling in the locker room, as champagne ON ICE
53. Storage towers SILOS
54. Indian royal RAJA
55. Util. bill ELEC
56. Sudden wind GUST
60. __ Fáil: Irish coronation stone LIA
61. Actor Beatty NED

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6 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 2 Mar 15, Monday”

  1. Tougher than I was ready for on a Monday. Lots of standard crossword fare – but also Irish provinces, Irish coronation stones, rivers, aits. That's a lot for a Monday.

    I thought of different cluing for 1A STDS….

    Werner Klemperer only took the part of Klink under the condition that the Germans were made to look foolish – especially his character. I think they succeeded.

    Best –

  2. I feel that Bill had an unfair advantage for this puzzle given his recent foray to the Emerald Isle!

  3. Sheesh, SKI TOW, SPYHOP, ULSTER, APIA, AITS, MHOS, LIA on Monday?
    ALIT for Willie D.
    My can opener is and ECCO good grip.
    Every EKCO kitchen utensil I had was cheap junk.

    KAYAK TO QUINCY OR NAYAK

    ECCO
    Yes Tony, Bill had quite the advantage today!
    Catch you all later.

  4. Not only did Werner Klemperer flee Germany in the 1930s, he later joined the U.S. Army and served with Carl Reiner. John Banner (Schultz) was also Jewish, and fled Austria after the Anschluss. Robert Clary (Labeau) spent time in a concentration camp as a child.

    I'm not 100% certain, but if the rightful High King of Ireland stands on the LIA Fail, the stone will scream. Which must be hard, since the stone is like a giant finger sticking out of the Hill.

  5. Jeez! Didn't know AITS, NACRE, or SKI TOW. I had to rely on crosses & guesses, more than usual for a Monday. Glad I wasn't the only one who got stuck on this one.
    However, I have both an Akita and a calico, so I liked seeing those.
    Fascinating info about "Hogan's Heroes." I've often thought how daring that show was, and how funny that we as children didn't understand what it all meant.
    I predict Tuesday's grid will be a breeze…
    Later, everyone!

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