LA Times Crossword Answers 12 Jun 15, Friday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Don Gagliardo
THEME: Ad In … each of today’s themed answers is a common phrase, but with the letter sequence AD added IN:

60D. Court term, and hint to this puzzle’s four longest answers AD IN

17A. Sheep and cows grazing together? MEADOW MIX (from “Meow Mix”)
30A. Taking turns ranting? TIRADE ROTATION (from “tire rotation”)
48A. Spy industry? SHADOW BUSINESS (from “show business”)
63A. Monk’s “The piano ain’t got no wrong notes,” e.g? JAZZ ADAGE (from “Jazz Age”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 16m 41s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Oilman who once owned the New York Jets HESS
Leon Hess founded the Hess Oil and Chemical Corporation in the 1930s, originally to distribute heating oil. Today’s Hess Corporation still bears Leon’s name. Leon Hess was also co-owner, and eventually sole owner, of the New York Jets football team from the late sixties until his death in 1999.

5. Voucher CHIT
A chit is a note or a short letter. The term tends to be used these days in the sense of an amount owed (as in a poker game). The word used to be “chitty”, which is now obsolete but was closer to the original Hindi term. I feel a tad obsolete myself because when we are at school we would be excused class if we had a “chitty”.

9. “MacGyver” actor Dana ELCAR
Dana Elcar was an actor most noted for his recurring role on television’s “MacGyver”. In “MacGyver” he played Peter Thornton, MacGyver’s best friend and boss. Elcar developed glaucoma for the last years of his life, which eventually caused him to go blind. He continued acting even with his affliction. As he lost his sight, Elcar’s condition was written into the “MacGyver” storyline. He also played the blind character Vladimir in his last stage performance, in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”.

14. “Happy Starts Here” food company 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?

16. Lash of Westerns LARUE
Alfred LaRue was an actor who appeared in a lot of western movies in the forties and fifties. He was very adept with the bullwhip, earning him the nickname “Lash”. Years after his on screen career ended, LaRue was the guy who trained Harrison Ford how to use a bullwhip for his role in the “Indiana Jones” series of films.

17. Sheep and cows grazing together? MEADOW MIX (from “Meow Mix”)
We might know Meow Mix cat food because of its advertising jingle that was meowed out by a cat, with subtitles below.

19. Latin clarifier ID EST
“Id est” is Latin for “that is”, and is often abbreviated to “i.e.” when used in English.

21. __ Flags SIX
The Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an operator of amusement parks that is headquartered in Grand Prairie, Texas. Six Flags owns more amusement parks than any other company in the world. The first of these properties to open was Six Flags Over Texas. The park’s name was chosen as a homage to the flags of the six nations that have governed Texas, namely Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America, and the Confederate States of America.

23. Brand of coolers YETI
The YETI company makes coolers that are designed to be tough and long-lasting. YETI was founded by brothers Roy and Ryan Seiders.

24. Chateau __ Michelle winery STE
Chateau Ste. Michelle is a winery in Woodinville, Washington in the Columbia Valley. Chateau Ste. Michelle produces so much Riesling wine that it is the number-one Riesling producer in the world in terms of number of bottles.

25. “… the __ below / As hush as death … “: “Hamlet” ORB
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, comprising a full five acts.

28. Chocolate dessert MUD PIE
The chocolate-based dessert called Mississippi mud pie probably originated in the state for which it is named. It is said that the gooey mass resembles the banks of the Mississippi River.

34. Baleful EVIL
Something described as “baleful” is ominous, promises evil.

36. Char-Broil competitor WEBER
In 1952 George Stephen was working for the Weber Brothers Metal works in Chicago. One of the company’s products was a line of half-spheres that were welded together to make buoys used in Lake Michigan. Stephens took two of these metal hemispheres and converted them into the original kettle grill. The Weber company set up a barbecue division that Stephens ran, and Stephen became so successful that he bought out the Weber Brothers factory and converted all production to the manufacture of grills.

Char-Broil is a line of barbecue grills that is made by a division of the W. C. Bradley Co. The Bradley Co. also owns the brands Rhino, Tiki and Thermos.

38. Last state to be admitted to the U.S. before the start of the Civil War KAN
The US state of Kansas is named after the Kansa Native American tribe that lived in the area. The first European to explore what is now Kansas Spanish conquistador Vázquez de Coronado, who also was first to see the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. The first permanent settlement of Europeans was Fort Leavenworth, founded in 1827. The territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established at the same time in 1854, with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In the following decade, settlers arrived in Kansas, both from slave states and slave-free states. Violent conflict between the two factions led to the territory earning the name “Bleeding Kansas”. Kansas was eventually admitted as a slave-free state in 1861, making it the last state admitted prior to the Civil War that broke out later that year.

39. French toast SALUT
In French “salut” means “hi”, and is less formal than “bonjour”.

44. Big Sur retreat ESALEN
Esalen is a retreat centre in Big Sur, California that was opened in 1962. The center is located on the coast, about 50 miles south of Monterey. It takes its name from the Esselen Native American tribe that once lived in the area where the institute is located.

47. Morning co-host RIPA
When Kelly Ripa secured the co-host spot on morning television with Regis Philbin, she was still acting in “All My Children” in a role she had been playing for over ten years. After a year of holding down two jobs, she eventually gave up the acting job.

53. Kung __ shrimp PAO
Sichuan (also Szechuan) is a province in southwest China. Sichuan is noted for its cuisine, which is hot and spicy as it uses plenty of garlic, chili peppers and the Sichuan peppercorn. A famous Szechuan dish in the US is Kung Pao chicken or shrimp.

55. Lattice strip LATH
The words “lath” and “lattice” have the same root in Old French. Laths are thin strips of wood that are nailed across a frame forming a backing to which plaster can be applied to finish a wall. The term is also used for the main elements in a trellis.

56. Nigerian culinary staple YAM
Although in the US we sometimes refer to sweet potatoes as “yams”, the yam is actually a completely different family of plants. True yams are more common in other parts of the the world than they are in this country, and are especially found in Africa.

59. Tot’s glassful WAWA
A tot drinks “wawa” (water) out of a sippy cup.

63. Monk’s “The piano ain’t got no wrong notes,” e.g? JAZZ ADAGE (from “Jazz Age”)
Thelonious Monk was a jazz pianist and composer, the second-most recorded jazz composer after the great Duke Ellington. That’s a pretty impressive statistic given that Ellington wrote more than 1,000 songs, whereas Monk only wrote about 70. Monk was a pioneer in the development of the jazz style called “bebop”, which gained popularity in the 1940s. Someone expert in music once said to Monk that he created extraordinary music, in spite of “playing the wrong notes on the piano”. Monk responded, “The piano ain’t got no wrong notes”.

69. Its logo uses Sweden’s national colors IKEA
The IKEA furniture stores use the colors blue and yellow for brand recognition. Blue and yellow are the national colors of Sweden, where IKEA was founded and is headquartered.

72. Costner role NESS
Eliot Ness was portrayed by Kevin Costner in “The Untouchables” (good movie).

Eliot Ness was the Treasury agent charged with the task of bringing down the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone. When Ness took on the job in 1930, Chicago law-enforcement agents were renowned for being corrupt, for being on the take. Ness handpicked 50 prohibition agents who he thought he could rely on, later reducing the group to a cadre of 15 and ultimately just 11 trusted men. That group of 11 earned the nickname “The Untouchables”, the agents who couldn’t be bought.

Kevin Costner attributes some of his motivation to pursue an acting career to the great Welsh actor, Richard Burton. Back when Costner was taking acting classes, and was undecided about whether to continue chasing his dream, he ran into Burton on a flight from Puerto Vallarta. Burton agreed to chat with him for a little while, and so Costner was able to ask him if acting meant tolerating the kind of personal drama that had plagued Burton’s own life. Burton told him, “You have green eyes. I have green eyes. I think you’ll be fine”.

Down
1. Pork cut HAM
Ham is a cut of pork from the hind leg of the animal. The meat is then preserved by salting or smoking it. The term “ham” is an Old English word for the hollow or bend of the knee.

3. Pork cut SPARE RIB
Spare ribs are so called because “spare” can indicate the absence of fat.

5. Call in a field CAW
A “caw” is the harsh cry of a crow.

7. Tennessee state flower IRIS
Tennessee’s state cultivated flower is the Iris. The state wildflower is the purple passionflower.

8. Waiter at O’Hare TAXI
O’Hare International is the fourth busiest airport in the world. The original airport was constructed on the site between 1942 and 1943, and was used by the Douglas Aircraft Company for the manufacture of planes during WWII. Before the factory and airport were built, there was a community in the area called Orchard Place, so the airport was called Orchard Place Airport/Douglas Field. This name is the derivation of the airport’s current location identifier: ORD (OR-chard D-ouglas). Orchard Place Airport was renamed to O’Hare International in 1949 in honor of Lieutenant Commander Butch O’Hare who grew up in Chicago. O’Hare was the US Navy’s first flying ace and a Medal of Honor recipient in WWII.

9. Country’s __ Young Band ELI
The Eli Young Band is a country group from Texas founded by Mike Eli and James Young when they were roommates in the University of North Texas.

10. Prince George’s grandma LADY DI
Prince George of Cambridge was born to Prince William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in July 2013. Young Prince George immediately became third in line to the British throne after Prince Charles (his grandfather) and Prince William (his father).

Charles, Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The wedding was a huge television event, with about 750 million people tuning in worldwide. Although the event was billed as a fairytale wedding, the couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. Famously, Lady Diana died in a car crash in Paris the following year.

12. Southernmost 48-states capital AUSTIN
Austin is the capital of the state of Texas. When the area was chosen to be the capital of the Republic of Texas, it was known as Waterloo. The name was changed in honor of Stephen F. Austin, a native of Virginia who was raised in Missouri and led the first successful colonization of Texas. Austin is the southernmost of the 48 contiguous states.

22. Brief holiday? XMAS
The abbreviation “Xmas” that is used for “Christmas” comes from the Greek letter chi (X), which is the first letter of the Greek word for “Christ” (Χριστός).

24. Ratatouille, for one STEW
“Ratatouille” is a 2007 animated film produced by Pixar. The hero of the piece is Remy, a rat whose ambition is to become a chef. Remy was voiced by stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt. The veteran actor Peter O’Toole voiced the character Anton Ego, a restaurant critic.

26. “Losing My Religion” band REM
R.E.M. was a rock band from Athens, Georgia formed in 1980. Apparently, the name “R.E.M.” was chosen randomly from a dictionary.

27. Longtime Rather rival BROKAW
Tom Brokaw is a much-respected television journalist mostly seen on NBC. Brokaw is also the author of the excellent 1998 history of WWII and its aftermath called “The Greatest Generation”.

Journalist and former news anchor Dan Rather is from Texas, and began his career as a reporter for Associated Press in Huntsville, Texas. Rather was the man chosen to replace Walter Cronkite as anchor and Managing Editor of “CBS Evening News” when Cronkite retired in 1981.

29. Pac-12 team UTES
The Runnin’ Utes are the basketball team of the University of Utah. The team was given the nickname the Runnin’ Redskins back when Jack Gardner was the head coach from 1953 to 1971. The “Runnin'” part of the name was chosen because Gardner was famous for playing quick offenses. The “Redskins” name was later dropped in favor of the less controversial “Utes”.

Pac-12 is an abbreviation for the Pacific-12 Conference, a college athletic conference in the western US. The Pac-12 has won more NCAA National Team Championships than any other conference. The Pac-12 was founded in 1915 as the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC). Over time as it grew, the conference went by the names Big Five, Big Six, Pacific-8, Pacific-10 and became the Pacific-12 in 2011.

31. Yard sale? ALE
A yard of ale is a very tall glass, one that is just under a yard (three feet) long. It holds about 60 fluid ounces of beer. I’ve tried drinking out of one, and it is extremely difficult. There is a bulb at the bottom of the glass. When you get towards the end of the drink, that bulb causes a kind of airlock and the remainder of the beer rushes to the top of the glass splashing you in the face.

32. P&G dental brand ORAL-B
The Oral-B toothbrush was introduced to the world in 1950, designed by a California periodontist. The first “model” was the Oral-B 60, a name given to reflect the 60 tufts in the brush. In 1969, the Oral-B was the first toothbrush to get to the moon as it was the toothbrush of choice for the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

40. Prince __ of Ord, friend of Valiant ARN
“Prince Valiant” is a comic strip that first appeared in 1937 when it was created by Hal Foster. Edward, Duke of Windsor called the “Prince Valiant” comic strip the “greatest contribution to English literature in the past one hundred years”. I’m not so sure …

45. Xperia maker SONY
The Sony Xperia is a line of smartphones that Sony has been making since 2008. The company introduced Xperia tablets in 2012. The name “Xperia” is formed from the English word “experience”.

46. Surveillance org. NSA
National Security Agency (NSA)

48. Ancient Laconian state SPARTA
Ancient Laconia was a region in southern Greece that was dominated by the city of Sparta. The people from Laconia were proud of their brevity of speech, which gives rise our modern term “laconic”, meaning someone who uses few words.

49. Show-off HOT-DOG
Although “hot-dogging” is a term now used across all sports, it was primarily associated with skiing and described the performance of showy and risky stunts on the slopes.

50. Goddess who advised Odysseus ATHENA
A mentor is a trusted teacher or counselor. The term comes Homer’s “Odyssey” in which there is a character called Mentor. Mentor is a friend of Odysseus, although he is a relatively ineffective old man. However, the goddess Athena takes on Mentor’s appearance in order to guide Odysseus’s young son Telemachus through difficult times.

51. “The Bridges of Madison County” setting IOWA
“The Bridges of Madison County” is a novel by Robert James Waller, and a movie directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. Both book and film are about an Italian woman living in sixties Madison County, Iowa who has an affair with a photographer from out of state. The lead roles are played by Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood in the movie.

52. Plumbing brand SLOAN
The Sloan Valve Company makes plumbing valves and fixtures. Sloan specializes in making products that minimize the use of fresh water.

58. Actress Rooney __ MARA
The actress Rooney Mara is noted for her role in the 2010 film “The Social Network” and more recently for the title role in the 2011 hit movie “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Mara has American Football in her blood. Her mother’s family founded the Pittsburgh Steelers and her father’s family founded the New York Giants.

60. Court term, and hint to this puzzle’s four longest answers AD IN
In tennis, if the score reaches “deuce” (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the “advantage”. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. If the one of the players is calling out the score then if he/she has the advantage then that player announces “ad in” or more formally “advantage in”. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all of that …?

62. Like Gen. Shinseki RET
Eric Shinseki is a retired general from the US Army who was appointed US Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 2009. Shinseki resigned from the position in 2014 at the height of a scandal involving the Veterans Health Administration. Questions were raised about substandard care in VA hospitals and the keeping of false records.

64. __ garden ZEN
Japanese Zen gardens are inspired by the meditation gardens of Zen Buddhist temples. Zen gardens have no water in them, but often there is gravel and sand that is raked in patterns designed to create the impression of water in waves and ripples.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Oilman who once owned the New York Jets HESS
5. Voucher CHIT
9. “MacGyver” actor Dana ELCAR
14. “Happy Starts Here” food company ALPO
15. Something about us all? AURA
16. Lash of Westerns LARUE
17. Sheep and cows grazing together? MEADOW MIX (from “Meow Mix”)
19. Latin clarifier ID EST
20. Rough projection CRAG
21. __ Flags SIX
23. Brand of coolers YETI
24. Chateau __ Michelle winery STE
25. “… the __ below / As hush as death … “: “Hamlet” ORB
28. Chocolate dessert MUD PIE
30. Taking turns ranting? TIRADE ROTATION (from “tire rotation”)
34. Baleful EVIL
35. Sullen MOROSE
36. Char-Broil competitor WEBER
38. Last state to be admitted to the U.S. before the start of the Civil War KAN
39. French toast SALUT
44. Big Sur retreat ESALEN
47. Morning co-host RIPA
48. Spy industry? SHADOW BUSINESS (from “show business”)
52. Precise SPOT ON
53. Kung __ shrimp PAO
54. Took sides? ATE
55. Lattice strip LATH
56. Nigerian culinary staple YAM
59. Tot’s glassful WAWA
61. Diner unit ORDER
63. Monk’s “The piano ain’t got no wrong notes,” e.g? JAZZ ADAGE (from “Jazz Age”)
67. Right wrongs ATONE
68. “Land for sale” sign datum AREA
69. Its logo uses Sweden’s national colors IKEA
70. Trouble NAG AT
71. Phoned RANG
72. Costner role NESS

Down
1. Pork cut HAM
2. Student’s option ELECTIVE
3. Pork cut SPARE RIB
4. Pop SODA
5. Call in a field CAW
6. White noise, perhaps HUM
7. Tennessee state flower IRIS
8. Waiter at O’Hare TAXI
9. Country’s __ Young Band ELI
10. Prince George’s grandma LADY DI
11. Lowlife, slangily CREEPO
12. Southernmost 48-states capital AUSTIN
13. Get even with again RETIE
18. Prayer opener O GOD
22. Brief holiday? XMAS
24. Ratatouille, for one STEW
26. “Losing My Religion” band REM
27. Longtime Rather rival BROKAW
29. Pac-12 team UTES
31. Yard sale? ALE
32. P&G dental brand ORAL-B
33. Get ripped TONE UP
37. More than modify REDO
40. Prince __ of Ord, friend of Valiant ARN
41. Act restlessly LIE AWAKE
42. Draws attention from, in a way UPSTAGES
43. Zap TASE
45. Xperia maker SONY
46. Surveillance org. NSA
48. Ancient Laconian state SPARTA
49. Show-off HOT-DOG
50. Goddess who advised Odysseus ATHENA
51. “The Bridges of Madison County” setting IOWA
52. Plumbing brand SLOAN
57. Open slightly AJAR
58. Actress Rooney __ MARA
60. Court term, and hint to this puzzle’s four longest answers AD IN
62. Like Gen. Shinseki RET
64. __ garden ZEN
65. Turn sharply ZAG
66. __ in echo E AS

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