LA Times Crossword Answers 16 Apr 15, Thursday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. One often schmeared BAGEL
The word “schmear” comes from the Yiddish word “shmir” meaning “spread”. The phrase “the whole schmear” is a relatively recent one, dating back to around 1969 and coming from the world of business.

19. George Lucas group JEDI
The Jedi are the “good guys” in the “Star Wars” series of movies. The most famous Jedi knights from the films are Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Alec Guinness, and later Ewan McGregor) and Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz).

The producer and director George Lucas has amassed an incredibly large fortune, primarily due to the phenomenal success of his movie franchises “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones”. Worth about $3 billion, Lucas has gone the way of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, agreeing to give half of his fortune to charity as part of “The Giving Pledge”.

20. Semiprecious stone ONYX
Onyx is a form of quartz that comes in many different shades, but most often it’s the black version that’s used for jewelry. The name “onyx” comes from the Greek word for “fingernail”, as onyx in the flesh color is said to resemble a fingernail.

22. Roast’s roost OVEN
A joint that is being roasted roosts (sits) in an oven.

23. 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champ WIE
Michelle Wie is an American golfer on the LPGA Tour. Wie began playing golf at the age of four and was the youngest player ever to qualify for an LPGA tour event. She turned pro just before her 16th birthday …

24. Hamlet, for one DANE
The full title of William Shakespeare’s play that we tend to call “Hamlet” is “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”. It is the most performed of all Shakespeare’s plays and it is also his longest.

26. Choose not to pick? STRUM
Instead of playing one’s guitar using a guitar pick, one might choose to strum the strings instead.

31. __ kwon do TAE
Tae kwon do is the national sport of Korea. “Tae” means “to strike or break with foot”; “kwon” means “to strike or break with fist”; “do” means “way” or “art”. Along with judo, taekwondo is one of only two martial arts included in the Olympic Games.

34. Computer outlet supply MICE
The first computer mouse was invented at the Stanford Research Institute in 1963, by one Douglas Engelbart. Sadly for him, his patent ran out before mice became standard equipment on computers, so Engelbart never made any money from his amazing invention.

35. Bruin legend ORR
Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking …

41. Winged god EROS
Eros, the Greek god of love, was also known as Amor.

42. Alf and Mork, briefly ETS
Extraterrestrial (ET)

“ALF” is a sitcom that aired in the late eighties. ALF is a hand-puppet, supposedly an alien from the planet Melmac that crash-landed in a suburban neighborhood. “ALF” stands for “alien life form”.

“Mork & Mindy” was broadcast from 1978 to 1982. We were first introduced to Mork (played by Robin Williams) in a special episode of “Happy Days”. The particular episode in question has a bizarre storyline culminating in Fonzie and Mork having a thumb-to-finger duel. Eventually Richie wakes up in bed, and alien Mork was just part of a dream! Oh, and “Nanu Nanu” means both “hello” and “goodbye” back on the planet Ork. “I am Mork from Ork, Nanu Nanu”. Great stuff …

43. Aegean Airlines hub, on itineraries ATH
Athens International Airport (ATH)

Aegean Airlines was founded in 1987, and is now the largest Greek airline. Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air, Greece’s flag carrier, attempted a merger in 2010, but this move was blocked by the European Commission due to concerns about a resulting monopoly in the Greek air transport market. In 2012, Aegean took over Olympic, a transaction that this time was approved by the European Commission. Two years on, the Commission felt that Greece’s economic woes would have led Olympic into bankruptcy anyway, so the concerns about a monopoly became irrelevant.

44. Dauphins’ play area MER
In French, dolphins (dauphins) play in the sea (mer).

49. Relatives of emus RHEAS
The rhea is a flightless bird native to South America. The rhea takes its name from the Greek titan Rhea, an apt name for a flightless bird as “rhea” comes from the Greek word meaning “ground”.

55. Frito go-with? LAY
The manufacturers of Frito and Lay potato chips merged to from Frito-Lay in 1961. Frito-Lay then merged with Pepsi-Cola in 1965 to form PepsiCo.

The Frito Corporation was started in 1932 by Elmer Doolin, basically in his mother’s kitchen. Doolin paid $100 for a corn chip recipe from a local restaurant and started producing Fritos at the rate of 10 pounds per day.

Lay’s potato chips were introduced in 1938 by Herman W. Lay. Lay started selling his chips out the trunk of his car, travelling all over the US. In those days the chips were pretty much handmade, but Lay put an end to that in 1942. He invented the first continuous potato processor in 1948, and chips started to take over the world!

56. Muppet with a unibrow BERT
For many years I believed that the “Sesame Street” characters Bert and Ernie were named after two characters in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. In the movie, the policeman’s name is Bert and his taxi-driving buddy is named Ernie. However, the “Sesame Street” folks have stated that the use of the same names is just a coincidence.

57. Hosiery shade BEIGE
The word “hose” meaning a “covering for the leg” has the same roots as the contemporary German word “hose” meaning “trousers, pants”.

59. “__ la Douce” IRMA
“Irma la Douce” is a wonderful Billy Wilder movie, released in 1963. It stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. Lemmon plays a maligned Parisian policeman, and MacLaine is the popular prostitute Irma la Douce (literally “Irma the Sweet”). Don’t let the adult themes throw you as it’s a very entertaining movie …

61. “Metamorphoses” poet OVID
“The Metamorphoses” is a narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid that deals with a lofty subject. It describes the history of the world from creation until the “present day”, that is Ovid’s “present day”, the era of Julius Caesar. A lot of the storyline makes use of Greek mythology (rather than Roman).

62. Operation Solomon carrier EL AL
As a result of political instability in Ethiopia in 1991, there was deep concern about the safety of the large Jewish population in the country. The Israeli government launched a massive covert military operation to airlift Ethiopian Jews to Israel, transporting 14,345 people in just 36 hours using continuous flights of 35 aircraft. A combination of El Al 747 aircraft and military transport planes were used, with seats being removed to accommodate as many passengers as possible in each flight. In fact, one flight of an El Al 747 carried 1,122 passengers, which is a record for a single flight that still stands today.

65. Word sung on New Year’s Day SYNE
The song “Auld Lang Syne” is a staple at New Year’s Eve (well, actually in the opening minutes of New Year’s Day). The words were written by Scottish poet Robbie Burns. The literal translation of “Auld Lang Syne” is “old long since”, but is better translated as “old times”. The sentiment of the song is “for old time’s sake”.

66. Belgian expressionist James ENSOR
James Ensor was a Belgian painter active in the first half of the twentieth century. He lived in Ostend for almost all of his life, and in terms of travel, he only made three brief trips abroad, to Paris, London and Holland.

Down
1. Isolated lines, in typesetting WIDOWS
In the world of typesetting, a widow is a short line of type, perhaps one that ends a paragraph, but one that spills over onto the next page or column. It’s considered a typesetting no-no, as a “widow” looks a little weird sitting there on “her” own.

3. Many a character on “The Good Wife” LAWYER
“The Good Wife” is a legal drama showing on CBS starring Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick, a litigator who returns to practicing the law after spending 13 years as a stay-at-home mom. I haven’t seen the show, but I hear good things …

4. Web browser since 1992 LYNX
Lynx is the oldest web browser that is currently in general use, having been introduced in 1992. Mosaic came along in 1993, Netscape Navigator in 1994, and Internet Explorer in 1995. If you haven’t bumped into Lynx, that might be because it is a text-based web browser, one that ignores graphic content. Text-based browsers are useful for low bandwidth connections, and can be helpful to the visually impaired when used in concert with text-to-speech software.

6. Jungian concept ANIMA
The concept of anima and animus is found in the Carl Jung school of analytical psychology. The idea is that within each male there resides a feminine inner personality called the anima, and within each female there is a male inner personality known as the animus.

27. Healthcare.gov, for one URL
Internet addresses (like NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) are more correctly called Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).

28. Computer outlet supplies MODEMS
A modem is a device that is used to facilitate the transmission of a digital signal over an analog line. At one end of the line a modem is used to “modulate” an analog carrier signal to encode the the digital information, and at the other end a modem is used to “demodulate” the analog carrier signal and so reproduce the original digital information. This modulation-demodulation gives the device its name: a MOdulator-DEModulator, or “modem”.

34. British sports cars MGS
My neighbor used to keep his MG Midget roadster in my garage (away from his kids!) back in Ireland many moons ago. The Midget was produced by MG division of the British Motor Corporation from 1961 to 1979, with the MG acronym standing for “Morris Garages”.

37. 2008 love triangle film, with “The” OTHER MAN
“The Other Man” is a 2008 film about a love triangle, with a twist. A husband finds out about his wife’s affair with another man only after her death. Laura Linney plays the wife, Liam Neeson the husband, and Antonio Banderas the lover. This one wasn’t received well by the critics and audiences, despite what I’d describe as a great cast …

38. Viking NORSEMAN
The Vikings were a Germanic people from northern Europe who were noted as great seafarers. Key to the success of the Vikings was the design of their famous “longships”. Made from wood, the longship was long and narrow with a shallow hull, It was also light, so that the crew would actually carry it small distances over land and around obstacles. Longships were designed to be propelled both by sail and by oars.

40. The first ones were introduced in blonde and brunette in 1959 BARBIES
The famous Barbie doll was created by businesswoman Ruth Handler and first appeared on store shelves in 1959. Barbie was based on a German fashion doll called Bild Lilli that was introduced in 1955. Lilli had been a German cartoon character before taking on a three-dimensional form. Prior to the introduction of Bild Lilli and Barbie, children’s dolls were primarily representations of infants.

46. Eleventh-century Scandinavian leader OLAV II
Of the many kings of Norway named Olaf/Olav (and there have been five), Olaf II is perhaps the most celebrated as he was canonized and made patron saint of the country. Olaf II was king from 1015 to 1028 and was known as “Olaf the Big” (or Olaf the Fat) during his reign. Today he is more commonly referred to as “Olaf the Holy”. After Olaf died he was given the title of Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae, which is Latin for “Norway’s Eternal King”.

47. Contralto Anderson MARIAN
Marian Anderson was a contralto from Philadelphia who spent her singing career performing in concerts and recitals rather that taking on operatic roles, despite many requests from respected opera companies. Anderson eschewed the invitations on the grounds that she had not been trained to act. As an African-American, Anderson was at the forefront in the struggle for artists of color to overcome racial prejudice. In 1939, she was refused permission to sing in Washington’s Constitution Hall that is owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). This decision resulted in First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigning from the DAR. Mrs. Roosevelt and her husband then backed an open-air concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that same year, which was a resounding success.

48. Half-wild Asian canine PYE-DOG
A pariah dog (also “pye-dog”) is a dog who roams free, living on garbage discarded by humans.

50. “And thereby hangs __”: Shak. A TALE
“And thereby hangs a tale” is a line from William Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It”, and is an idiom that we use today meaning “there’s a story connected with this”.

52. They may be measured in knots WINDS
A knot (kt.) is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour. Traditionally a vessel’s speed was determined by using a “chip log”. A chip log is made up of a wooden board attached to a line wrapped around a reel. The line (called a “log-line”) had knots tied in it at uniform spacings. To determine the vessels speed the board was thrown overboard and the line allowed to unroll. The speed was then the “number of knots” paid out in a fixed time interval.

53. Disco era term A GOGO
Go-go dancing started in the early sixties. Apparently, the first go-go dancers were women at the Peppermint Lounge in New York City who would spontaneously jump up onto tables and dance the twist. It wasn’t long before clubs everywhere started hiring women to dance on tables for the entertainment of their patrons. Out in Los Angeles, the “Whisky a Go Go” club on Sunset Strip added a twist (pun intended!), as they had their dancers perform in cages suspended from the ceiling, creating the profession of “cage dancing”. The name “go-go” actually comes from two expressions. The expression in English “go-go-go” describes someone who is high energy, and the French expression “à gogo” describes something in abundance.

54. Pan on Broadway PETER
“Peter Pan” is a musical adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play of the same name. The musical opened on Broadway in 1954, famously starring Mary Martin in the title role. NBC recorded three separate telecasts of the stage production with the original cast, in 1955, 1956 and 1960. NBC broadcast a revived version of the musical in 2014 called “Peter Pan Live!” with Allison Williams playing Peter, and Christopher Walken playing Captain Hook. Unlike the earlier recordings, the 204 version was not well received.

57. Immortal Yankee, with “The” BABE
Jack Dunn was the owner/manager of the Baltimore Orioles back in 1913, when he signed on George Herman Ruth as a pitcher. The other players called Ruth “Jack’s newest babe”, and the name “Babe” stuck.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Determination WILL
5. One often schmeared BAGEL
10. Get entangled (with) MESS
14. “It depends” I MAY
15. Have __ for news A NOSE
16. Ended a flight ALIT
17. Blue DOWN
18. Suppress SIT ON
19. George Lucas group JEDI
20. Semiprecious stone ONYX
21. Sends out EMITS
22. Roast’s roost OVEN
23. 2014 U.S. Women’s Open champ WIE
24. Hamlet, for one DANE
25. Succumb to pressure CRACK
26. Choose not to pick? STRUM!
29. Bit of cheering RAH
31. __ kwon do TAE
32. Tiff ROW
34. Computer outlet supply MICE
35. Bruin legend ORR
36. Furniture designed for portability … or, what are found in this puzzle’s circles FOLDING CHAIRS
40. Swung thing BAT
41. Winged god EROS
42. Alf and Mork, briefly ETS
43. Aegean Airlines hub, on itineraries ATH
44. Dauphins’ play area MER
45. Really beat STOMP
49. Relatives of emus RHEAS
51. Exchange SWAP
55. Frito go-with? LAY
56. Muppet with a unibrow BERT
57. Hosiery shade BEIGE
58. Unusual RARE
59. “__ la Douce” IRMA
60. Playground denial AM NOT!
61. “Metamorphoses” poet OVID
62. Operation Solomon carrier EL AL
63. Symbol of authority BADGE
64. “See you around!” CIAO!
65. Word sung on New Year’s Day SYNE
66. Belgian expressionist James ENSOR
67. 46-Down, for one KING

Down
1. Isolated lines, in typesetting WIDOWS
2. Go-getter’s phrase I’M ON IT
3. Many a character on “The Good Wife” LAWYER
4. Web browser since 1992 LYNX
5. Derived from, with “on” BASED
6. Jungian concept ANIMA
7. Was accepted as a member GOT IN
8. Abstruse ESOTERIC
9. Eye part LENS
10. Significant MAJOR
11. Vertical shuttle ELEVATOR
12. Auxiliary seating units SIDECARS
13. Really tough puzzle, say STINKER
25. Has an ace up one’s sleeve CHEATS
27. Healthcare.gov, for one URL
28. Computer outlet supplies MODEMS
30. Workout woe ACHE
33. Telegram WIRE
34. British sports cars MGS
36. Like some advice FATHERLY
37. 2008 love triangle film, with “The” OTHER MAN
38. Viking NORSEMAN
39. Follower’s suffix -IST
40. The first ones were introduced in blonde and brunette in 1959 BARBIES
46. Eleventh-century Scandinavian leader OLAV II
47. Contralto Anderson MARIAN
48. Half-wild Asian canine PYE-DOG
50. “And thereby hangs __”: Shak. A TALE
52. They may be measured in knots WINDS
53. Disco era term A GOGO
54. Pan on Broadway PETER
57. Immortal Yankee, with “The” BABE
58. Sway ROCK

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