LA Times Crossword Answers 11 May 15, Monday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: C.C. Burnikel
THEME: Time Frames … each of today’s themed answers is FRAMED by a unit of time, which is shown by the circled letters. Those TIME FRAMES get longer and longer as we progress down the grid:

61A. Durations … and what this puzzle’s circles literally represent TIME FRAMES

18A. Place for legislative debate HOU(SE FLOO)R (framed by “hour”)
24A. Tinkers-to-Evers-to-Chance baseball event D(OUBLE PL)AY (framed by “day”)
40A. Fairies and pixies, e.g. WEE( FOL)K (framed by “week”)
51A. Work on casually, as an engine MON(KEY WI)TH (framed by “month”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 6m 02s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Hardy’s “__ of the D’Urbervilles” TESS
The full name of Thomas Hardy’s 1891 novel is “Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented”. When it was originally published, “Tess …” received very mixed reviews, largely because it addresses some difficult sexual themes including rape, and sexual double standards (society’s attitude towards men vs women). I suppose the most celebrated screen adaptation is Roman Polanski’s “Tess” released in 1979. Polanski apparently made “Tess” because his wife, Sharon Tate, gave him Hardy’s novel as her last act before she was murdered by the Manson family. There is a dedication at the beginning of the movie that simply reads “To Sharon”.

5. Diva delivery ARIA
“Diva” comes to us from Latin via Italian. “Diva” is the feminine form of “divus” meaning “divine one”. The word is used in Italy to mean “goddess” or “fine lady”, and especially is applied to the prima donna in an opera. We often use the term to describe a singer with a big ego.

14. Ancient mystical letter RUNE
A rune is a character in an alphabet that is believed to have mysterious powers. In Norse mythology, the runic alphabet was said to have a divine origin.

17. Kirkuk’s country IRAQ
Kirkuk is a city in northern Iraq, in the Kurdish region of the country.

20. Infield fly POPUP
In a baseball game, a pop-up arcs across the infield.

22. Online ha-ha LOL
Laugh out loud (LOL)

24. Tinkers-to-Evers-to-Chance baseball event DOUBLE PLAY
“Baseball’s Sad Lexicon” is a poem written by Franklin Pierce Adams in 1910:

These are the saddest of possible words:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”
Trio of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into a double –
Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
“Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

28. Arctic deer CARIBOU
Caribou is the North American name for reindeer. The term “caribou” comes into English via French from the Mi’kmaq word “xalibu” meaning “the one who paws”.

30. Make corrections to EMEND
The verb “to amend” means “to change for the better, put right, alter by adding”. The related verb “to emend” is used more rarely and mainly in reference to the editing of professional writing. Both terms are derived from the Latin “emendare” meaning “to remove fault”.

33. Bracketology org. NCAA
“Bracketology” is a term used to describe the process of predicting which college basketball teams will advance in a bracket in the annual NCAA Basketball Tournament. President Barack Obama famously participates in an ESPN segment called “Baracketology” in which he predicts the outcome of the tournament, game by game.

34. Clobber DRUB
A drubbing is a beating, given either literally or figuratively. The term “drub” dates back in English to the 17th century when it was imported from the Arabic word for a beating, “darb”.

39. Computer program glitch BUG
Back in 1947, the famed computer programmer Grace Hopper noticed some colleagues fixing a piece of equipment by removing a dead moth from a relay. She remarked that they were “debugging” the system, and so she has been given credit for popularizing the term.

42. Pirouette point TOE
We took our word “pirouette” directly from French, in which language it has the same meaning, i.e. a rotation in dancing. “Pirouette” is also the French word for a spinning top.

43. “Operator” singer Jim CROCE
Jim Croce’s most successful songs were “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” and “Time in a Bottle”. Like so many great singers it seems, Croce died in a plane crash. He was killed along with five others just after takeoff when the small commercial plane in which he was travelling hit a tree, possibly because the pilot had a heart attack. Croce died just a few days before the release of his latest album, “I Got a Name”.

46. Scourge BANE
Today we tend to use the word “bane” to mean anathema, a source of persistent annoyance. A few centuries ago, a bane was a cause of harm or death, perhaps a deadly poison.

47. Battery current entry point ANODE
A battery is a device that converts chemical energy into electric energy. A simple battery is made up of three parts: a cathode, an anode and a liquid electrolyte. Ions from the electrolyte react chemically with the material in the anode producing a compound and releasing electrons. At the same time, the electrolyte reacts with the material in the cathode, absorbing electrons and producing a different chemical compound. In this way, there is a buildup of electrons at the anode and a deficit of electrons at the cathode. When a connection (wire, say) is made between the cathode and anode, electrons flow through the resulting circuit from the anode to cathode in an attempt to rectify the electron imbalance.

49. Played the siren SEDUCED
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were seductive bird-women who lured men to their deaths with their song. When Odysseus sailed closed to the island home of the Sirens he wanted to hear their voices, but in safety. He had his men plug their ears with beeswax and then ordered them to tie him to the mast and not to free him until they were safe. On hearing their song Odysseus begged to be let loose, but the sailors just tightened his bonds and and the whole crew sailed away unharmed.

65. Irish New Age singer ENYA
Enya’s full name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career. She sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

New Age music is created to provide a relaxing and stress-free atmosphere. The New Age movement is often said to have begun with the release of an album called “Spectrum Suite” by Steven Halpern in 1975.

67. Furniture hardwood TEAK
Teak is a hardwood tree in the mint family, commonly found in monsoon forests of Asia.

70. Miss from Mex. SRTA
Señorita (Srta.) is Spanish and mademoiselle (Mlle.) is French for “Miss”.

Down
2. 100 cents, in Germany EURO
One of the currencies replaced by the euro was Germany’s Deutsche Mark (known as the “Deutschmark” in English).

3. Spring bloom named for its resemblance to a mythical creature SNAPDRAGON
Snapdragons are so called because the plant’s flower is said to resemble that of a dragon. The snapdragon genus is “antirrhinum”, which is derived from the Greek for “like a nose”.

4. Giant redwood SEQUOIA
The giant sequoia tree is also known as the giant redwood. There’s only one part of the world where you can see giant sequoias growing naturally, and that’s on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. However, there are plenty of examples of giant sequoias that have been planted as ornamentals all over the world.

6. __ Grande RIO
The Rio Grande is a river forming part of the border between Mexico and the United States. Although we call the river the Rio Grande on this side of the border, in Mexico it is called the Rio Bravo or Rio Bravo del Norte.

8. Greek fable writer AESOP
Aesop is remembered today for his famous fables. Aesop lived in Ancient Greece, probably around the sixth century BC. Supposedly he was born a slave, somehow became a free man, but then met with a sorry end. Aesop was sent to the city of Delphi on a diplomatic mission but instead insulted the Delphians. He was tried on a trumped-up charge of stealing from a temple, sentenced to death and was thrown off a cliff.

12. School year-end dance PROM
A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

13. Snowblower brand TORO
Toro is a manufacturer of mainly lawn mowers and snow removal equipment based in Bloomington, Minnesota. The company was started in 1914 to build tractor engines.

19. Vogue rival ELLE
“Elle” magazine was founded in 1945 in France and today has the highest circulation of any fashion magazine in the world. “Elle” is the French word for “she”. “Elle” is published monthly worldwide, although you can pick up a weekly edition if you live in France.

“Vogue” magazine has been published an awfully long time, with the first issue appearing in 1892. Over the decades the magazine has picked up a lot of criticism as well as its many fans. Famously, an assistant to the editor wrote a novel based on her experiences working with the magazine’s editor, and called it “The Devil Wears Prada”.

21. Pint server PUB
A US pint is made from 16 fluid ounces, and an imperial pint is 20 fluid ounces. The term “pint” comes into English via Old French, ultimately from the Latin “picta” meaning “painted”. The name arose from a line painted on the side of a beer glass, marking a full measure of ale.

27. Wild way to run AMOK
The phrase “to run amok” (sometimes “to run amuck”) has been around since the 1670s and is derived from the Malay word for “attacking furiously”, “amuk”. The word “amok” was also used as a noun to describe Malay natives who were “frenzied”. Given Malaya’s troubled history, the natives probably had good reason for that frenzy …

28. ”Fast Money” channel CNBC
“Fast Money” is a stock trading news show aired on weekdays on CNBC.

29. Integra automaker ACURA
The Honda Integra was sold in the US under the Acura badge. The Integra was produced from 1985 until 2006.

35. Blurry craft in tabloid pics UFO
“Tabloid” is the trademarked name (owned by Burroughs, Wellcome and Co,) for a “small tablet of medicine”, a name that goes back to 1884. The word “tabloid” had entered into general use to mean a compressed form of anything, and by the early 1900s was used in “tabloid journalism”, applied to newspapers that had short, condensed articles and stories printed on smaller sheets of paper.

38. Papaya discard SEED
The papaya is the fruit of the Carica papaya, a large tree-like plant that is native to southern Mexico and Central America. One traditional use of papaya is as a meat tenderizer. The fruit and sap contain the enzyme papain that breaks down meat fibers. Papain is used today as a component of powdered meat tenderizers.

40. “The Things __ for Love” WE DO
“The Things We Do for Love” is a great song released by the British group 10cc in 1976. 10cc’s biggest hit was 1973’s “Rubber Bullets”.

41. MGM co-founder LOEW
Marcus Loew was a New Yorker, born into a poor Jewish family. He started out in a penny arcade business and used its profits to buy into a nickelodeon. He built a whole chain of movie theaters, and then moved into the production of films so that he could guarantee supply of features that he could show in his theaters. Eventually he pulled together the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film production company, and sadly passed away just three years after he inked the deal.

46. “Downton Abbey” servers BUTLERS
A butler is the head servant in a household. The butler is often in charge of the wine stores in the house. The term “butler” comes from the Old French “boteillier” meaning “officer in charge of wine”, which in terms comes from the Old French “boteille”, the word for a “bottle”.

PBS’s hit show “Downton Abbey” is the most successful costume drama from Britain since 1981’s “Brideshead Revisited”. Two great shows …

48. Cabinet dept. concerned with power ENER
The US Department of Energy (DOE) came into being largely as a result of the 1973 oil crisis. The DOE was founded in 1977 by the Carter administration. The DOE is responsible for regulating the production of nuclear power, and it is also responsible for the nation’s nuclear weapons. The official DOE seal features symbols denoting five sources of energy: the sun, an atom, an oil derrick, a windmill and a dynamo.

52. Shelley contemporary KEATS
The poet John Keats is famous for writing a whole series of beautiful odes. The most renowned are the so-called “1819 Odes”, a collection from the year 1819 that includes famous poems such as “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode to Psyche”.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English Romantic poet. Shelley had strong views on vegetarianism. He was dedicated to the cause of all sentient beings, believing that the slaughter of animals by humans for the use of food was a barbaric practice. He wrote a famous essay on the subject called “A Vindication of Natural Diet” in 1813.

53. Hunter Fudd ELMER
Elmer Fudd is one of the most famous of all the Looney Tunes cartoon characters, the hapless nemesis of Bugs Bunny. If you have never seen it, check out Elmer and Bugs in the marvelous “Rabbit of Seville”, a short cartoon that parodies Rossini’s “Barber of Seville”. Wonderful stuff …

55. Singer Turner TINA
Tina Turner is the stage name used by Anna Mae Bullock, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Turner has always loved Europe and moved there in the eighties. She now splits her time between her homes in England, France and Switzerland.

56. Arab League bigwig EMIR
The Arab League was formed in 1945 in Cairo with six founding members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria. As a result of events during the 2011 Arab Spring, the Arab League has suspended Syria’s membership.

59. Seacrest of “American Idol” RYAN
Radio and television personality Ryan Seacrest is best known as the host of the talent show “American Idol”. Seacrest has also been hosting “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” on ABC since 2005. He is also a producer, and is the man behind the show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”. Ryan has a lot to answer for …

“American Idol” is a spin-off show that was created after the amazing success of the British television show “Pop Idol”. I can’t abide either program(me) …

64. Calypso cousin SKA
Ska originated in Jamaica in the late fifties and was the precursor to reggae music. No one has a really definitive etymology of the term “ska”, but it is likely to be imitative of some sound.

The musical style of calypso originated in Trinidad and Tobago, but there seems to be some debate about which influences were most important as the genre developed. It is generally agreed that the music was imported by African slaves from their homeland, but others emphasize influences of the medieval French troubadours. To me it sounds more African in nature. Calypso reached the masses when it was first recorded in 1912, and it spread around the world in the thirties and forties. It reached its pinnacle with the release of the famous “Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Hardy’s “__ of the D’Urbervilles” TESS
5. Diva delivery ARIA
9. Conform as needed ADAPT
14. Ancient mystical letter RUNE
15. Put on staff HIRE
16. Like the ’80s look, now RETRO
17. Kirkuk’s country IRAQ
18. Place for legislative debate HOUSE FLOOR
20. Infield fly POPUP
22. Online ha-ha LOL
23. Firing range purchase AMMO
24. Tinkers-to-Evers-to-Chance baseball event DOUBLE PLAY
28. Arctic deer CARIBOU
30. Make corrections to EMEND
33. Bracketology org. NCAA
34. Clobber DRUB
37. Dump emanations ODORS
39. Computer program glitch BUG
40. Fairies and pixies, e.g. WEE FOLK
42. Pirouette point TOE
43. “Operator” singer Jim CROCE
45. Fair to middling SO-SO
46. Scourge BANE
47. Battery current entry point ANODE
49. Played the siren SEDUCED
51. Work on casually, as an engine MONKEY WITH
54. How-to segment STEP
57. Snaky swimmer EEL
58. Look daggers (at) GLARE
61. Durations … and what this puzzle’s circles literally represent TIME FRAMES
65. Irish New Age singer ENYA
66. Get together UNITE
67. Furniture hardwood TEAK
68. Some flat-screen TVs RCAS
69. Exposed BARED
70. Miss from Mex. SRTA
71. Email folder SENT

Down
1. Lose one’s footing TRIP
2. 100 cents, in Germany EURO
3. Spring bloom named for its resemblance to a mythical creature SNAPDRAGON
4. Giant redwood SEQUOIA
5. “That feels good!” AHH!
6. __ Grande RIO
7. “Good for me!” I RULE!
8. Greek fable writer AESOP
9. Kennel cry ARF!
10. Postponed DELAYED
11. Tiny bit of matter ATOM
12. School year-end dance PROM
13. Snowblower brand TORO
19. Vogue rival ELLE
21. Pint server PUB
25. Foreshadow BODE
26. Fishing decoys LURES
27. Wild way to run AMOK
28. ”Fast Money” channel CNBC
29. Integra automaker ACURA
31. “Forget about it!” NOT A CHANCE!
32. Unmanned spy plane DRONE
35. Blurry craft in tabloid pics UFO
36. Given to micromanaging BOSSY
38. Papaya discard SEED
40. “The Things __ for Love” WE DO
41. MGM co-founder LOEW
44. Vie COMPETE
46. “Downton Abbey” servers BUTLERS
48. Cabinet dept. concerned with power ENER
50. Archaeologist’s project DIG
52. Shelley contemporary KEATS
53. Hunter Fudd ELMER
54. Concert re-entry request STUB
55. Singer Turner TINA
56. Arab League bigwig EMIR
59. Seacrest of “American Idol” RYAN
60. Los Angeles-to-Atlanta direction EAST
62. Prepared dinner for FED
63. Have dinner EAT
64. Calypso cousin SKA

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11 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 11 May 15, Monday”

  1. Easy Monday except for one square: the "N" where NCAA crosses CNBC. No idea. The first is sports, which is my usual problem; the second is stocks. Since I'm risk-averse, I always go for the safest and ignore the rest. But that's just me.

  2. As Sfingi said. Nice and Easy. I really enjoyed it – why Mondays are my favorites. I had no circles online, but that did not matter.

    Sfingi, we are All risk averse, as human beings – but to different levels. That is the whole story and concept of insurance, underwriting and in finance, derivatives.

    Even today, there are still speculators buying Greek Sovereign bonds, albeit in reduced quantities. ( I believe there is an outside 5% chance that some of the Greek bonds may actually be paid off ….)

    Have a nice day and a nice week, all.

  3. Quick Monday puzzle. As usual on Mondays, the blog was the highlight of the puzzle.

    RUNE was new to me, and the derivations of the words "pint" and "bug" win the "interesting" prize –

    Best –

  4. Tinkers to Evers to Chance: The poem is great and gave the three everlasting fame as a double play combination. I found this also by Ogden Nash written in 1949 –
    'E' is for Evers
    His jaw in advance;
    Never afraid
    To Tinker with Chance

  5. Fun puzzle. Maybe it's my age (73) but I still prefer the 1970s "Upstairs Downstairs" to "Downton Abbey". Mr. Hudson beats Mr. Carson by a long shot. And who can forget the night when the Bellamys hosted King Edward VII for a magnificent dinner, while downstairs the irrespressible kitchenmaid Sarah was giving birth to their illegitimate (and sadly stillborn) grandson.

  6. I think the term 'cousin' when used in crosswords is meant to indicate something related as in similar not necessarily a familial relationship. Just a bit misleading in this case since they are actually related (tho I had no idea).

    My mom loved Upstairs Downstairs.

  7. I think the term 'cousin' when used in crosswords is meant to indicate something related as in similar not necessarily a familial relationship. Just a bit misleading in this case since they are actually related (tho I had no idea).

    My mom loved Upstairs Downstairs.

  8. Hi all!
    I'm always glad to see my beloved SKA in a grid, tho the clue played a little loose. And I liked the cute things! WEE FOLK! SNAPDRAGON!
    It's always odd to be typing away when I know all my fellow solvents are sound asleep …
    Carrie out!

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