LA Times Crossword Answers 22 Jun 15, Monday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Roger Wienberg
THEME: Crabby Start … each of today’s themed answers starts with a word that often follows CRAB:

68A. Nebula named for a crustacean, which can precede the starts of 17-, 25-, 39-, 51- and 64-Across CRAB

17A. Rural political bloc GRASSROOTS (giving “crabgrass”)
25A. Crate-moving equipment FORKLIFT (giving “crab fork”)
39A. Bone-breaking combo, in a playground rhyme STICKS AND STONES (giving “crab stick”)
51A. Slow-cooked entrée POT ROAST (giving “crab pot”)
64A. Retail outlet with a tech support area called the “Genius Bar” APPLE STORE (giving “crab apple”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 15s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Limerick, e.g. POEM
No one knows for sure how the limerick got its name, although there does seem to be agreement the name does indeed come from the city or county of Limerick in Ireland. Try this one for size:

There was a young lady named Bright
who traveled much faster than light.
She set out one day
in a relative way,
and came back the previous night.

10. “Get lost!” SCAT!
Our word “scat”, meaning “get lost!” comes from a 19th-century expression “quicker than s’cat”, which meant “in a great hurry”. The original phrase probably came from the words “hiss” and “cat”.

15. Double-reed woodwinds OBOES
The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”. When you hear an orchestra tuning before a performance you’ll note (pun intended!) that the oboe starts off the process by playing an “A”. The rest of the musicians in turn tune to that oboe’s “A”.

17. Rural political bloc GRASSROOTS (giving “crabgrass”)
Crabgrass may be considered a weed and a scourge of the lawn-loving population, but it has its uses. In Africa, the seeds of some species of crabgrass are toasted and ground into a flour that is used to make porridge, or better still, to make beer …!

19. Shortly, to Shakespeare ANON
“Anon” originally meant “at once” and evolved into today’s meaning of “soon” apparently just because the word was misused over time.

It is not actually known when the great English playwright William Shakespeare was born, but he was baptized on April 26th, 1564. Traditionally, his birthday is celebrated on April 23rd, which is the feast day of Saint George and England’s National Day. Shakespeare also died on April 23rd, in 1616 at the presumed age of exactly 52 years.

24. Amin of Uganda IDI
Idi Amin received most of his military training in the British armed forces, eventually achieving the highest rank possible for a Black African in the British Colonial Army in 1959, that of Warrant Officer. On his return to Uganda Amin joined his country’s military and quickly rose to the rank of Deputy Commander of the Army. During that time he was quite the athlete. He was a noted rugby player and swimmer, and for nine years held the Ugandan national light-heavyweight boxing title. By the early seventies, Amin was commander of all the armed forces of Uganda and in 1971 seized power in a military coup, displacing the country’s president Milton Obote. There followed seven years of brutal rule by Amin during which it is estimated that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were murdered. Amin was ousted from power in 1979 after a war with Tanzania, and fled to Libya where he stayed for a year. He then moved to Saudi Arabia, where he was financially supported by the Saudi Royal Family for the remainder of his life. Amin died in 2003.

25. Crate-moving equipment FORKLIFT (giving “crab fork”)
A crab fork is a small fork that is used to extract the meat out of the claw of a lobster or crab.

32. The Trojans of the NCAA USC
The athletic teams of the University of Southern California are called the USC Trojans. The women’s teams are also called the Trojans, but are sometimes referred to as Women of Troy.

39. Bone-breaking combo, in a playground rhyme STICKS AND STONES (giving “crab stick”)

Sticks and stones may break my bones
But words will never hurt me.

Crab sticks are processed seafood that is made to resemble the leg meat of a snow crab or Japanese spider crab. It is usually made from pulverized Alaska pollock, mixed with a binder such as egg white. Crab flavoring is added, and red food coloring applied to the outside of the “stick”.

43. Martial arts-based workout TAE BO
Tae Bo isn’t an ancient martial art, and rather was developed as a form of aerobic exercise in the 1990s. The discipline was introduced by taekwondo expert Billy Blanks who gave it the name Tae Bo, a melding of “taekwondo” and “boxing”.

45. Three, in Napoli TRE
Naples (“Napoli” in Italian) is the third largest city in Italy. The name “Napoli” comes from the city’s Ancient Greek name, which translates as “New City”. That’s a bit of a paradox as today Naples is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world.

51. Slow-cooked entrée POT ROAST (giving “crab pot”)
A “crab pot” is a trap designed to catch crabs.

56. “The Greatest” in the ring 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!”

62. CBS legal drama “The Good __” WIFE
“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 recently “binge-watched” the first few seasons of this show and was very, very impressed with it. There are some excellent story arcs and some really colorful characters. I recommend this one …

64. Retail outlet with a tech support area called the “Genius Bar” APPLE STORE (giving “crab apple”)
The technical support desk found in Apple Retail Stores is rather inventively called the Genius Bar. The certified support technicians are known as “Geniuses”. The trainees are called GYOs: Grow-Your-Own-Geniuses”.

67. River in Düsseldorf, in Düsseldorf RHEIN
The river running through Europe that we know in English as the Rhine, is called “Rhein” in German, “Rhin” in French and “Rijn” in Dutch.

The city of Düsseldorf lies in the west of Germany, fairly close to the border with France, and sits on the River Rhine.

68. Nebula named for a crustacean, which can precede the starts of 17-, 25-, 39-, 51- and 64-Across CRAB
The Crab Nebula is located in the constellation of Taurus. It was discovered in 1731 by English astronomer John Bevis, although it appears to correspond to a bright supernova reported by Chinese astronomers in 1054.

In astronomical terms a nebula is a cloud of dust and ionized gases (“nebula” is the Latin for “cloud”). Many nebulae form as gases collapse in on themselves under the influence of enormous gravitational forces. Ultimately these collapses can result in the creation of new stars.

71. Citgo rival HESS
The Hess Corporation is an oil company based in New York City. In 1964, the company started selling toy trucks with the Hess logo on them, in Hess gas stations. The company has been selling them every since, bringing out new models just before Christmas. Hess toy trucks have become quite collectible and the old ones can fetch a pretty penny.

The oil and gasoline company Citgo was founded in 1910 as Cities Services Company, a supplier of gas and electricity to public utilities. City Services Company introduced the Citgo brand in 1965 in its petroleum businesses. Citgo is now owned by the national oil company of Venezuela.

Down
1. Wrinkly-faced dogs PUGS
The pug is a breed of dog of Chinese origin. Our current family pet is a boxer/pug cross, a good-looking mutt!

3. Splashy style ELAN
Our word “élan” was imported from French, in which language the word has a similar meaning to ours, i.e “style” or “flair”.

4. Connecticut home of a 19-acre maritime museum MYSTIC
Mystic, Connecticut sits on the Mystic River. Mystic River isn’t actually a river, but rather an estuary. Mystic is home to the largest maritime museum in the world: the Museum of America and the Sea.

6. Blood classification letters ABO
The most important grouping of blood types is the ABO system. Blood is classified as either A, B, AB or O, depending on the type of antigens on the surface of the red blood cells. A secondary designation of blood is the Rh factor, in which other antigens are labelled as either positive or negative. When a patient receives a blood transfusion, ideally the donor blood should be the same type as that of the recipient, as incompatible blood cells can be rejected. However, blood type O-neg can be accepted by recipients with all blood types, A, B, AB or O, and positive or negative. Hence someone with O-neg blood type is called a “universal donor”.

10. Health resort SPA
The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as Spa is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.

12. Emotionally distant ALOOF
I suppose one might guess from the “feel” of the word “aloof” that is has nautical roots. Originally aloof meant “to windward” and was the opposite to “alee”. A helmsman might be instructed to stay aloof, to steer the boat into the weather to keep a distance from a lee-shore. It is from this sense of maintaining a distance that aloof came to mean “distant” in terms of personality. Interesting, huh …?

13. Religious belief TENET
A tenet is an article of faith, something that is held to be true. “Tenet” is Latin for “he holds”.

22. Sport with clay targets SKEET
There are three types of competitive shotgun target shooting sports:

– Skeet shooting
– Trap shooting
– Sporting clays

26. Carson’s successor LENO
Jay Leno was born James Leno in New Rochelle, New York. Jay’s father was the son of Italian immigrants, and his mother was from Scotland. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and actually dropped out of school on the advice of a high school guidance counsellor. However, years later he went to Emerson college and earned a Bachelor’s degree in speech therapy. Leno also started a comedy club at Emerson in 1973. Today Jay Leno is a car nut and owns about 200 vehicles of various types. You can check them out on his website: www.jaylenosgarage.com.

Johnny Carson hosted “The Tonight Show” for thirty years, from 1962 to 1992. Although Carson was the first choice to take over the show from Jack Paar, he initially declined. Carson eventually took the job, after it had also been declined by Bob Newhart, Jackie Gleason, Groucho Marx and Joey Bishop.

34. Singer Yoko ONO
Yoko Ono was born into a prosperous Japanese family, and is actually a descendant of one of the emperors of Japan. Her father moved around the world for work, and she lived the first few years of her life in San Francisco. The family returned to Japan, before moving on to New York, Hanoi and back to Japan just before WWII, in time to live through the great fire-bombing of Tokyo in 1945. Immediately after the war the family was far from prosperous. While Yoko’s father was being held in a prison camp in Vietnam, her mother had to resort to begging and bartering to feed her children. When her father was repatriated, life started to return to normal and Yoko was able to attend university. She was the first woman to be accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University.

35. Govt. banking protector FDIC
During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Banking Act of 1933. The legislation established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), intended to be a temporary government corporation that provided insurance on deposits made by customers of qualified financial institutions. The first accounts to be covered, in 1934, had an insurance limit of $2,500. Since the financial crisis of 2008, that limit is $250,000.

38. 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”.

40. Trucker on a radio CBER
A CBer is someone who operates a Citizens’ Band radio. In 1945, the FCC set aside certain radio frequencies for the personal use of citizens. The use of the Citizens’ Band increased throughout the seventies as advances in electronics brought down the size of transceivers and their cost. There aren’t many CB radios sold these days though, as they have largely been replaced by cell phones.

41. Zither-like Japanese instruments KOTOS
The koto is a traditional stringed instrument, and the national musical instrument of Japan.

The zither is a stringed instrument, one in which the strings do not extend beyond the bounds of the sounding box. That means that the instrument has no neck, unlike a guitar say.

47. World’s largest desert SAHARA
The name “Sahara” means “greatest desert” in Arabic and it is just that, a great desert covering almost 4 million square miles of Northern Africa. That’s almost the size of the United States.

52. Martini garnish OLIVE
The name “martini” probably takes it name from the “Martini & Rossi” brand of dry vermouth, although no one seems to be completely sure. What is clear is that despite the Martini name originating in Italy, the martini drink originated in the US. The original martini was made with gin and sweet vermouth, but someone specifying a “dry” martini was given gin and dry vermouth. Nowadays we use dry vermouth for all martinis and the term “dry” has become a reference to how little vermouth is included in the drink. Famously, Noel Coward liked his drink very dry and said that a perfect martini is made by “filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy”.

53. Last year’s frosh SOPHS
The term “sophomore” has been used for a student in the second year of university since the 1680’s. The original meaning of the word was “arguer”. The term has Greek roots, from two Greek words that have been artificially combined in English. The Greek “sophos” means “wise”, and “moros” means “foolish”.

“Frosh” is a slang term for a college freshman. The plural is also “frosh”. We call them “freshers” back in Ireland …

54. Drinks excessively TOPES
“To tope” is to drink alcohol excessively and habitually.

63. Bugling beast ELK
Male elks are called bulls, and females are known as cows. Bull elks are known for their very loud screaming, which is called bugling. Cow elks are attracted to bulls that bugle more often and most loudly.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Limerick, e.g. POEM
5. Underground molten rock MAGMA
10. “Get lost!” SCAT!
14. Far from fair UGLY
15. Double-reed woodwinds OBOES
16. Global extremity POLE
17. Rural political bloc GRASSROOTS (giving “crabgrass”)
19. Shortly, to Shakespeare ANON
20. Submitted SENT IN
21. Opponents FOES
23. Mate for a stag DOE
24. Amin of Uganda IDI
25. Crate-moving equipment FORKLIFT (giving “crab fork”)
27. Mountain climber’s return trip DESCENT
31. Rain really hard TEEM
32. The Trojans of the NCAA USC
33. Silly error GOOF
36. Other side, in war ENEMY
39. Bone-breaking combo, in a playground rhyme STICKS AND STONES (giving “crab stick”)
43. Martial arts-based workout TAE BO
44. “Stop stalling!” DO IT!
45. Three, in Napoli TRE
46. Circus safety gear NETS
48. Double-__: traitor CROSSER
51. Slow-cooked entrée POT ROAST (giving “crab pot”)
55. Really annoy IRK
56. “The Greatest” in the ring ALI
57. “Get lost!” SHOO!
58. Farther below sea level DEEPER
62. CBS legal drama “The Good __” WIFE
64. Retail outlet with a tech support area called the “Genius Bar” APPLE STORE (giving “crab apple”)
66. Bad to the bone EVIL
67. River in Düsseldorf, in Düsseldorf RHEIN
68. Nebula named for a crustacean, which can precede the starts of 17-, 25-, 39-, 51- and 64-Across CRAB
69. Pack of cards DECK
70. Desirable trait ASSET
71. Citgo rival HESS

Down
1. Wrinkly-faced dogs PUGS
2. Storybook baddie OGRE
3. Splashy style ELAN
4. Connecticut home of a 19-acre maritime museum MYSTIC
5. Breakfast times MORNINGS
6. Blood classification letters ABO
7. __ on a tangent GO OFF
8. “Likewise” ME TOO
9. Stand up for (oneself) ASSERT
10. Health resort SPA
11. Burger bar array CONDIMENTS
12. Emotionally distant ALOOF
13. Religious belief TENET
18. One of a triangle trio SIDE
22. Sport with clay targets SKEET
26. Carson’s successor LENO
27. Clean with a rag DUST
28. Juanita’s “this” ESTA
29. Word before method or notation SCIENTIFIC
30. Pond hopper TOAD
34. Singer Yoko ONO
35. Govt. banking protector FDIC
37. Inconsequential MERE
38. River of Flanders YSER
40. Trucker on a radio CBER
41. Zither-like Japanese instruments KOTOS
42. Shrill STRIDENT
47. World’s largest desert SAHARA
49. Mine extracts ORES
50. Undetailed drawing SKETCH
51. Toyed with, cat-style PAWED
52. Martini garnish OLIVE
53. Last year’s frosh SOPHS
54. Drinks excessively TOPES
59. Skin opening PORE
60. Important chapters in history ERAS
61. Civil War fighters REBS
63. Bugling beast ELK
65. Stretch the truth LIE

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