LA Times Crossword Answers 30 June 15, Tuesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: C.C. Burnikel
THEME: Hero Sandwich … each of today’s themed answers contains the hidden word “HERO”, SANDWICHED between two words in the answer:

55A. Deli lunch … or, based on a word hidden in 20-, 34- and 41-Across, what each of those answers is? HERO SANDWICH

20A. Coastal storm concern BEACH EROSION
34A. Follow local conventions, metaphorically DO AS THE ROMANS DO
41A. Get rich illicitly FEATHER ONE’S NEST

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 50s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Cereal aisle regular __ Crunch CAP’N
The first Cap’n Crunch commercials aired in 1963, at the time the product line was launched. The Cap’n’s full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch, would you believe? Crunch’s voice was provided for many years by Daws Butler, the same voice actor who gave us Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. Cap’n Crunch is commander of the S.S. Guppy.

5. Classic Christmas stocking punishment COAL
Apparently, the tradition of putting coal in the Christmas stocking of a poorly-behaved child comes simply from the proximity of the stocking (hanging on the fireplace) to a source of coal!

9. IRS submission method E-FILE
E-file: that’s what I do with my tax return …

15. Dance performed in grass skirts HULA
Hula is the name of the Polynesian dance. The chant or song that the dance illustrates, that’s known as the mele.

18. Website for handmade goods ETSY
Etsy.com is an e-commerce website where you can buy and sell the kind of items that you might find at a craft fair.

23. NBC skit show, familiarly SNL
“Saturday Night Live” (SNL)

28. Prefix with sail PARA-
Parasailing is hanging below a tethered parachute that is towed by a boat.

30. German automaker OPEL
Adam Opel founded his company in 1863, first making sewing machines in a cowshed. Commercial success brought new premises and a new product line in 1886, namely penny-farthing bicycles. Adam Opel died in 1895, leaving his two sons with a company that made more penny-farthings and sewing machines than any other company in the world. In 1899 the two sons partnered with a locksmith and started to make cars, but not very successfully. Two years later, the locksmith was dropped in favor of a licensing arrangement with a French car company. By 1914, Opel was the largest manufacturer of automobiles in Germany. My Dad had an Opel in the seventies, a station wagon (we’d say “estate car” in Ireland) called an Opel Kadett.

34. Follow local conventions, metaphorically DO AS THE ROMANS DO
The proverb “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” probably dates back to the days of St. Augustine. St. Augustine wrote a letter around 390 AD in which he states:

When I go to Rome, I fast on Saturday, but here [Milan] I do not. Do you also follow the custom of whatever church you attend, if you do not want to give or receive scandal?

38. Web links, briefly URLS
Internet addresses (like NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) are more correctly called Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).

46. Org. policing Internet neutrality FCC
The FCC has been around since 1934, when it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.

The principle of Net neutrality holds that those entities managing the Internet should treat all data passing through equally. The term “Net neutrality” was coined in 2003 by Tim Wu, a media law professor at Columbia University. Net neutrality is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FCC) in the US.

49. “The Family Circus” cartoonist Bil KEANE
Bil Keane is a cartoonist most associated with his strip “The Family Circus”. Once Bil sketches out the text and idea for the cartoon, he sends it off to his son Jeff Keane who inks and colors the pictures so that the strip is ready for publication. In the storyline itself, the main characters are based on Bil’s own family. In fact, the son “Jeffy” in the story is based on Jeff, Bil’s son and production assistant.

51. Cartoon shopkeeper APU
The fictional Kwik-E-Mart store is operated by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on “The Simpsons” TV show. Apu is married to Manjula , and the couple have eight children, actually eight octuplets. The convenience store owner doesn’t seem to be making much use of his Ph.D in computer science that he earned in the US. Apu’s undergraduate degree is from Caltech (the Calcutta Technical Institute), where he graduated top of his class of seven million students …

55. Deli lunch … or, based on a word hidden in 20-, 34- and 41-Across, what each of those answers is? HERO SANDWICH
“Hero” is another name for a submarine sandwich. The hero originated in New York City in the 1800s among Italian immigrants who wanted an Italian sandwich that reminded them of home. The name “hero” was coined in the 1930s, supposedly by a food critic in the “New York Herald Tribune” when he wrote that “one had to be a hero” to finish the gigantic sandwich. Hero is a prevalent term to this day in New York City, reserved for a submarine sandwich with an Italian flavor.

59. Boxcars, in craps SIXES
Boxcars is a slang term for two sixes rolled on a pair of dice, particularly in the game of craps. The idea is that the twelve pips on the dice resemble a pair of boxcars on a freight train.

64. Halloween reward TREAT
Trick or treat?!

66. Rock music style of the New York Dolls GLAM
I remember the days of glam rock so well, as it was a hugely popular genre of music in the British Isles during the early seventies. Artistes wore the wildest of clothes, big hair, shiny outfits and really high platform boots. Names associated with glam rock are T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music and Gary Glitter.

The New York Dolls are a rock band that formed in New York City in 1971. Back in the band’s early days, they adopted the “glam rock” look. They dressed up in knee-length boots, high heels and platform shoes. There was a lot of spandex and one of the group was fond of wearing a dress.

67. Rice field PADDY
A paddy field is the flooded piece of land used to grow rice. The water reduces competition from weeds allowing the rice to thrive. The word “paddy” has nothing to do with us Irish folk, and is an anglicized version of the word “padi”, the Malay name for the rice plant.

68. Julian and Sean, to John Lennon SONS
Julian Lennon is the oldest child of John Lennon and his first wife Cynthia Powell. Julian was the inspiration of several Beatles songs, including “Hey Jude” and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. “Hey Jude” was originally a song called “Hey Jules”, written by Paul McCartney. He wrote the original song for Julian, as a way of comforting the child during his parents divorce. One day in 1966, Julian came home from nursery school and showed his Dad a drawing he had made of his classmate, a little girl called Lucy O’Donnell. Julian described the artwork as “Lucy … in the sky with diamonds”.

69. Italy’s Villa d’__ ESTE
The Villa d’Este is a beautiful Renaissance villa situated close to Tivoli near Rome, Italy.

Down
1. Dieter’s count CARBS
The eating of relatively few carbohydrates is central to the diet proposed by Robert Atkins. Atkins first laid out the principles behind the Atkins diet in a research paper published in 1958 in the “Journal of the American Medical Association”. He popularized his diet starting in 1972 with his book “Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution”.

2. Spock’s father, but not his mother ALIEN
Vulcans are an alien race in the “Star Trek” franchise. The most famous (half) Vulcan is Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy. Spock’s father is a Vulcan, and his mother is human.

3. Castel Gandolfo holy retreat PAPAL PALACE
Castel Gandolfo is a town just to the southeast of Rome that is famously home to the papal summer residence called the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo. Even though the palace lies outside of Rome, it does not fall under Italian jurisdiction and is classified as one of the properties of the Holy See.

4. Tiny amt. of time NSEC
“Nanosecond” is more correctly abbreviated to “ns”, and really is a tiny amount of time: one billionth of a second.

5. Speedy feline CHEETAH
The cheetah can run faster than any other land animal, achieving speeds of 70-75 mph. The name “cheetah” comes from Sanskrit via Hindi, from the word for “variegated”. Something that is variegated has different colored zones, like the mottled hide of the cheetah.

6. Freakish OUTRE
The word “outré” comes to us from French, as you might imagine, derived from the verb “outrer” meaning “to overdo, exaggerate”. “Outrer” is also the ultimate root of our word “outrage”.

8. Air Pops chips maker LAY’S
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!

9. Pierre’s “And there you have it!” ET VOILA!
“Et voilà!” is French for, “and there it is!” The related “Et voici!” translates as “and here it is!”

10. Mali currency FRANC
The Republic of Mali is a landlocked country in western Africa, south of Algeria. Formerly known as French Sudan, the nation’s most famous city is Timbuktu. Mali is the third-largest producer of gold on the continent, after South Africa and Ghana.

11. “Dr. No” novelist Fleming IAN
“Dr. No” may have been the first film in the wildly successful James Bond franchise, but it was the sixth novel in the series of books penned by Ian Fleming. Fleming was inspired to write the story after reading the Fu Manchu tales by Sax Rohmer. If you’ve read the Rohmer books or seen the films, you’ll recognize the similarities between the characters Dr. No and Fu Manchu.

12. Fib LIE
To “fib” is to “to tell a lie”. The term likely comes from “fibble-fable” meaning “nonsense”, itself derived from “fable”.

13. Above-the-street trains ELS
The Chicago “L” is the second largest rapid transit system in the US, with the New York City Subway being the largest. The “L” is also the second oldest, again with the New York City Subway system having the honor of being around the longest. Note that the official nickname for the system is the “L” (originally short for “elevated railroad”), although the term “El” is also in common use (especially in crosswords as “ELS”). The L is managed by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).

21. Lyricist with Rodgers HART
Lorenz Hart was the lyricist in the songwriting team of Rodgers and Hart. The long list of hits with lyrics from Hart includes such classics as “Blue Moon”, “The Lady Is a Tramp”, “My Funny Valentine” and “Isn’t It Romantic?”

26. Vlasic varieties KOSHER DILLS
According to Jewish dietary law, “kosher” food is “fit” to eat, and food that is not kosher is called “treif” (or tref).

Often a dill pickle is actually a pickled gherkin, as the gherkin and cucumber are different cultivars within the same species. Here in the US, dill is commonly added to the pickling vinegar or brine, but this wasn’t the case when I used to eat them back in Ireland (I can’t stand dill!). You might see jars labeled as “cornichons”, but they’re gherkins. Cornichon is just the French word for gherkin.

Apparently Vlasic invented the glass-packed, shelf-stable pickle. The company adopted the stork mascot in the late sixties, with the stork originally carrying a baby. The mascot was a play on the perception that pregnant women have a higher than average appetite for pickles.

30. Twistable cookies OREOS
There is an “official” competition involving Oreo cookies, in case anyone is interested in participating. A competitor has to take several steps to finish an OREO Lick Race:

a. Twist open the cookie.
b. Lick each half clean of creme.
c. Show the clean cookie halves to the fellow competitors.
d. Dunk the cookie halves in a glass of milk.
e. Eat the cookie halves.
f. Drink the milk.

Ready, set, go …

31. Often blocked online lewdness PORN
The word “pornography” comes from the Greek “pornographos” meaning “writing of prostitutes”.

34. Fanny DUFF
“Duff” is a slang term for the buttocks, rump. The exact etymology isn’t known, but it dates back to the 1830s.

“Fanny” is a slang term for the buttocks, rump. You have to be careful using the slang term “fanny” if traveling in the British Isles, because over there it has a much ruder meaning …

35. Hoover rival ORECK
The Oreck Corporation is named after founder David Oreck and is a manufacturer of vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. The company started out selling vacuum cleaners by mail, a new concept in 1963. David Oreck himself appears regularly as a spokesman in the company’s ads and infomercials.

The first practical portable vacuum cleaner was invented by James Spangler in 1907. Spangler sold the patent for the design to his cousin’s husband, William Henry Hoover. Hoover then made his fortune from manufacturing and selling vacuum cleaners. Hoover was so successful in my part of the world that back in Ireland we don’t use the verb “to vacuum” and instead say “to hoover”, and a hoover is what we call a vacuum cleaner, regardless of who makes it.

36. “Reader, I married him” governess EYRE
“Jane Eyre” is the celebrated novel written by Charlotte Brontë, under the pen name Currer Bell. The love story is perhaps represented by the oft-quoted opening lines of the last chapter, “Reader, I married him”. Over the years, I’ve shared here on my blogs that the “Jane Eyre” story line is a little too dark and Gothic for my taste, but a very persuasive blog reader convinced me to look more at the romantic side of the story and give it a second chance. I watched a wonderful 4-hour television adaptation of the novel made by the BBC a while back and I have to say that because I was focused on the relationship between Jane and Rochester, I was able to push past the Gothic influences (that depress me) so I really enjoyed the story. I thoroughly recommend the 2006 BBC adaptation to fans of the novel …

44. Cable station for game highlights ESPNEWS
ESPNews is a 24-hour sports news channel that started broadcasting in 1996.

51. Hank of Cooperstown AARON
The great Hank Aaron (Hammerin’ Hank) has many claims to fame. One notable fact is that he is the last major league baseball player to have also played in the Negro League.

Cooperstown is a village in New York that is famous as the home to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The village was named for Judge William Cooper, Cooperstown’s founder, and the father of the noted writer James Fenimore Cooper.

53. Flashy display ECLAT
“Éclat” can mean a brilliant show of success, or the applause or accolade that one receives. The word derives from the French “éclater” meaning “to splinter, burst out”.

56. Does in, mob-style OFFS
“To off, do in” is to execute, mob-style.

57. Farmland skyline highlight SILO
“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 corn.

58. Minimum __ WAGE
The minimum wage set by the US federal government is currently $7.25/hour. Adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage was about $10/hour back in 1968.

59. Gas treatment letters STP
STP is a brand name for automotive lubricants and additives. The name STP comes from “Scientifically Treated Petroleum”.

60. Gershwin brother IRA
Ira Gershwin was a lyricist who worked with his brother George to create such American classics as the songs “I Got Rhythm” and “Someone to Watch Over Me”, as well as the opera “Porgy and Bess”. After George Gershwin died, Ira continued to create great music, working with the likes of Jerome Kern and Kurt Weill.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Cereal aisle regular __ Crunch CAP’N
5. Classic Christmas stocking punishment COAL
9. IRS submission method E-FILE
14. “So sad!” ALAS!
15. Dance performed in grass skirts HULA
16. Lag behind TRAIL
17. Ready for harvesting RIPE
18. Website for handmade goods ETSY
19. Rooftop spinners VANES
20. Coastal storm concern BEACH EROSION
23. NBC skit show, familiarly SNL
24. Enjoyed a meal ATE
25. Checklist marks TICKS
28. Prefix with sail PARA-
30. German automaker OPEL
32. “Look at that!” OOH!
34. Follow local conventions, metaphorically DO AS THE ROMANS DO
38. Web links, briefly URLS
39. “__ out!”: ump’s call YER
40. “Now I get it!” cries AHAS
41. Get rich illicitly FEATHER ONE’S NEST
46. Org. policing Internet neutrality FCC
47. Has yet to settle OWES
48. Play the lead STAR
49. “The Family Circus” cartoonist Bil KEANE
51. Cartoon shopkeeper APU
52. Dawn moisture DEW
55. Deli lunch … or, based on a word hidden in 20-, 34- and 41-Across, what each of those answers is? HERO SANDWICH
59. Boxcars, in craps SIXES
62. Lay off FIRE
63. Join forces (with) ALLY
64. Halloween reward TREAT
65. Steady stream FLOW
66. Rock music style of the New York Dolls GLAM
67. Rice field PADDY
68. Julian and Sean, to John Lennon SONS
69. Italy’s Villa d’__ ESTE

Down
1. Dieter’s count CARBS
2. Spock’s father, but not his mother ALIEN
3. Castel Gandolfo holy retreat PAPAL PALACE
4. Tiny amt. of time NSEC
5. Speedy feline CHEETAH
6. Freakish OUTRE
7. “Besides that … ” ALSO …
8. Air Pops chips maker LAY’S
9. Pierre’s “And there you have it!” ET VOILA
10. Mali currency FRANC
11. “Dr. No” novelist Fleming IAN
12. Fib LIE
13. Above-the-street trains ELS
21. Lyricist with Rodgers HART
22. Checklist component ITEM
26. Vlasic varieties KOSHER DILLS
27. Fizzy drinks SODAS
29. Mgr.’s aide ASST
30. Twistable cookies OREOS
31. Often blocked online lewdness PORN
33. Run the party HOST
34. Fanny DUFF
35. Hoover rival ORECK
36. “Reader, I married him” governess EYRE
37. Granny NANA
42. Forthrightness HONESTY
43. Pitcher in many still-life paintings EWER
44. Cable station for game highlights ESPNEWS
45. Small earring STUD
50. Leading AHEAD
51. Hank of Cooperstown AARON
53. Flashy display ECLAT
54. Self-pitying lament WHY ME?!
56. Does in, mob-style OFFS
57. Farmland skyline highlight SILO
58. Minimum __ WAGE
59. Gas treatment letters STP
60. Gershwin brother IRA
61. Crossed (out) XED

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