LA Times Crossword Answers 5 Sep 15, Saturday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Alex Vratsanos & Jeff Chen
THEME: None
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 19m 39s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 6 … INDY (Andy!!!), JEER (goer!!!), TIEPOLO (Taepolo), NICKI MINAJ (Nicki Minag!!!), OBOE D’AMORE (oboe d’amoro)

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Eggy dessert ZABAGLIONE
Zabaione (also “zabaglione”) is a rich Italian dessert made from egg yolks, sugar and Marsala wine.

11. La Salle of “ER” ERIQ
Eriq La Salle played Dr. Peter Benton on “ER”, and is best known in film for his portrayal of Darryl in the 1998 comedy “Coming to America”.

17. Elementary sextet NOBLE GASES
The rare gases are better known as the noble gases, but neither term is really very accurate. Noble gas might be a better choice though, as they are all relatively nonreactive. But rare they are not. Argon, for example, is a major constituent (1%) of the air that we breathe.

19. Older Pevensie sister in “The Chronicles of Narnia” series SUSAN
In the C.S. Lewis novel “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, four siblings visit the magical land of Narnia via a wardrobe in the spare room of house in which they are living while evacuated during WWII. The children are Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter Pevensie.

There are seven novels in “The Chronicles of Narnia” children’s fantasy series written by C. S. Lewis:

– “The Magician’s Nephew”
– “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”
– “The Horse and the Boy”
– “Prince Caspian”
– “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”
– “The Silver Chair”
– “The Last Battle”

20. Turned brown, maybe SAUTEED
“Sauté” is a French word. The literal translation from the French is “jumped” or “bounced”, a reference to the tossing of food while cooking it in a frying pan.

22. Curling piece STONE
I think curling is such a cool game (pun!). It’s somewhat like bowls, but played on a sheet of ice. The sport was supposedly invented in medieval Scotland, and is called curling because of the action of the granite stone is it moves across the ice. A player can make the stone take a curved path (“curl”) by causing it to slowly rotate as it slides.

27. “Do wrong to __”: Shak. NONE
Here’s a great, great line from William Shakespeare’s play “All’s Well That Ends Well” …

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

34. University of Miami mascot Sebastian the __ IBIS
Sebastian the Ibis is the mascot of the Miami Hurricanes (also “Canes”), the athletics teams of the University of Miami. “The Ibis” was chosen as the name of the school’s yearbook in 1926, and was adopted as the mascot decades later in the eighties. The ibis was selected by the Hurricanes as the bird is known for its bravery when a hurricane approaches.

35. Climate Reality Project founder AL GORE
The Climate Reality Project is an organization founded by Al Gore in 2011. Perhaps adding to the gravitas of the group, the Project’s board of directors includes Theodore Roosevelt IV, great grandson of president Theodore Roosevelt.

37. Flimflam CON
“Flimflam” is another word for a confidence trick. The term has been in use since the 1500s, would you believe?

38. Slap target, informally SKEETER
Skeeter is a slang term for mosquito, with “mosquito” being the Spanish for “little fly”. The female mosquito actually has to have a “blood meal” before she is able to lay her eggs.

39. Airline with the EuroBonus frequent flier program SAS
SAS was formerly known as Scandinavian Airlines System and is the flag carrier of three countries: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. SAS is based at Stockholm Arlanda Airport located just north of the Swedish capital.

40. Alpine parrot KEA
The kea is a large parrot that is found on the South Island of New Zealand. Apparently tourists love keas as they are intelligent and curious. Natives tend to regard them as pests, for the same reasons.

45. Dr. Jones, to Dr. Marcus Brody INDY
In the “Indiana Jones” series of films, Dr. “Indy” Jones is played so ably by Harrison Ford. Dr. Marcus Brody is also played ably by the veteran English actor Denholm Elliott.

46. Mesoamerican crop MAIZE
Mesoamerica is a region extending from Central Mexico, south to Costa Rica. It is known as an area where societies flourished prior to the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries.

48. Column that won’t support anything PLUME
As in a “plume” of smoke, a column of smoke.

53. DeMille specialties EPICS
Cecil B. Demille was a movie director and producer who started his professional career in the silent era. DeMille’s movies were often epic works, such “Cleopatra” (1936), “Samson and Delilah” (1949), “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952) and “The Ten Commandments” (1956). The Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award is named in his honor, and indeed he was its first recipient.

57. It precedes one NOON
Our word “noon”, meaning “midday”, comes from the Latin “nona hora” that translates as “ninth hour”. Back in Ancient Rome, the “ninth hour” was three in the afternoon. Over the centuries, traditions such as church prayers and “midday” meals shifted from 3 p.m. to 12 p.m., and so “noon” became understood as 12 noon.

58. Dept. of State employee US DIPLOMAT
The US Department of State is the equivalent of the Foreign Ministry in many other countries, and is responsible for international relations. Ceremonially, the Secretary of State is the highest ranking of all Cabinet officials, and is the highest ranking in the presidential line of succession (fourth, after the Vice President, the Speaker of the House and the President pro tem of the Senate). The department was created in 1789 by President Washington, the first of all executive departments created. The first Secretary of State was future-president Thomas Jefferson.

62. Secretary of Education Duncan ARNE
Long before Arne Duncan became Secretary of Education he was a professional basketball player, but not in the NBA. Duncan played for the National Basketball League of Australia, for the Eastside Spectres in Melbourne.

63. Like pen pals’ relationships EPISTOLARY
“Epistolary” is such a lovely word, as used in the term “epistolary novel”. Such a novel is one that is structured usually as a series of letters, although diary entries and other documents can also be used. The term “epistolary” comes from the Greek “epistole” meaning “letter”. One of the more famous examples of the genre is Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”.

65. High wind SOPRANO SAX
The saxophone was invented by Belgian Adolphe Sax. Sax developed lip cancer at one point in his life, and one has to wonder if his affliction was related to his saxophone playing (I am sure not!). I had the privilege of visiting Sax’s grave in the Cemetery of Montmartre in Paris a few years ago.

Down
1. Some reds, for short ZINS
Zinfandel is one of my favorite red wine varietals. It amazes me that the rich and heavy red Zinfandel comes from the same grape as does the sweet White Zinfandel.

2. Not worth __ A SOU
A sou is an old French coin. We use the term “sou” to mean “an almost worthless amount”.

3. Roaring Twenties hairdos BOBS
A “bob cut” is a short hairstyle in which the hair is cut straight around the head, at about the line of the jaw. Back in the 1570s a “bob” was the name given to a horse’s tail that was cut short, and about a century later it was being used to describe short hair on humans. The style became very popular with women in the early 1900s (as worn by actress Clara Bow, for example), with the fashion dying out in the thirties. The style reemerged in the sixties around the time the Beatles introduced their “mop tops”, with Vidal Sassoon leading the way in styling women’s hair in a bob cut again. Personally, I like it …

The 1920s are often called the Roaring Twenties, a period of dynamic change across all aspects of life. Things were finally returning to normal after WWI, jazz became popular, some women “broke the mold” by becoming “flappers”, and Art Deco flourished. The whole decade came to a tragic end with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and was followed by the Great Depression.

4. Ones for the road? ATLASES
The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas”.

5. 1814 treaty site GHENT
Ghent is a city in the Flemish region of Belgium. The War of 1812 (between Britain and the US) was formally concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. The American negotiating team in Ghent included Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams.

7. He outlived George by 46 years 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.

George Gershwin was a remarkable composer in so many ways, not least in that he was respected for both his popular and classical compositions. Gershwin’s best known works for orchestra are the magnificent “Rhapsody in Blue” from 1924 and “An American in Paris” from 1928. Another noted work is the opera “Porgy and Bess” that was first performed in 1935. Surprisingly, Porgy and Bess was a commercial failure, and so Gershwin moved to Hollywood and started composing very successful film scores. He was only 38 years old when he died in 1937, from a brain tumor.

8. Sacred syllables OMS
“Om” is a sacred mystic word from the Hindu tradition. “Om” is sometimes used as a mantra, a focus for the mind in meditation.

9. Dumbarton denials NAES
Dumbarton is a town that lies on the north bank of the river Clyde
in the West-Central lowlands of Scotland.

10. Snow Queen in “Frozen” ELSA
“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”.

14. Its capital was Xianyang QIN DYNASTY
The Qin Dynasty was established in 221 BC after the state of Qin conquered six other states. The Qin was China’s first imperial dynasty, and lasted until 206 BC when the Han Dynasty wielded power.

23. Certain Honshu native OSAKAN
The Japanese city of Osaka used to be called Naniwa, with the name changing to Osaka some time before 1500. “Osaka” can be translated either as “large hill” or “large slope”. Osaka is sometimes referred to as “the Chicago of Japan” as it is a major center of commerce and industry.

Honshu is the largest island in Japan, with the name “Honshu” translating as “Main Island”. Honshu is the seventh largest island in the world. As it is home to the principal cities in Japan, Honshu is also the second most populous island on the planet (after Java, in Indonesia).

27. “Pink Friday” rapper NICKI MINAJ
Nicki Minaj is a rapper from Queens, New York who was born in Trinidad.

28. Baroque wind OBOE D’AMORE
An oboe d’amore is a musical instrument similar to an oboe but a little larger.

29. Singer who had a 1959 hit with “I Loves You, Porgy” NINA SIMONE
Nina Simone was the stage name of Eunice Waymon. Simone was very much associated with jazz music, although she really wanted to be a classical musician early in her career, inspired by a love for the music of Bach.

32. 1974 hit sung entirely in Spanish ERES TU
We have a big event across Europe every year called the Eurovision Song Contest. Each nation enters one song in competition with each other, and then voters across the whole continent decide on the winner. That’s how ABBA got their big break when they won in 1974 with “Waterloo”. In 1973, Spain’s entry was “Eres tú” (the Spanish for “You Are”) sung by the band Mocedades. “Eres tu” came second in the competition, but should have won in my humble opinion.

42. “The Banquet of Cleopatra” painter TIEPOLO
Tiepolo (full name “Giovanni Battista Tiepolo”) was a prolific artist from the Republic in Venice who was active during the 18th century. His large painting “The Banquet of Cleopatra” shows the result of a wager between Cleopatra and Mark Anthony about who could host the most expensive feast. The former won when she dropped a rare pearl in a cup of vinegar, and then drank the mixture.

47. __ cards, used in ESP experiments ZENER
Zener cards were developed in the early thirties by psychologist Karl Zener, for use in experiments related to extra-sensory perception (ESP). These five simple and distinctive cards replaced the standard deck of cards that had been used in trials up to that point. The five symbols used on the cards are a circle, a cross, three wavy lines, a square and a star.

52. Beantown NHL nickname ESPO
Phil “Espo” Esposito is a former professional hockey player who played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers.

In the days of sail, the natural trade routes across the Atlantic involved a lot of ships arriving in Boston directly from West Indies. One of the main cargoes carried by these vessels coming from the West Indies was molasses. An abundance of cheap molasses led to an abundance of baked beans in the port city, and all those baked beans gave rise to Boston’s nickname “Beantown”.

54. “Look at me, __ helpless …”: “Misty” lyric I’M AS
“Misty” was written in 1954 by jazz pianist and composer Erroll Garner. Johnny Mathis had a hit with “Misty” five years later, and it was to become his signature tune. Unsurprisingly, the song features prominently in the 1971 Clint Eastwood thriller “Play Misty for Me”.

55. Word spoken con affetto CARA
In Italian, one might address someone fondly (con affetto) as “darling, dear” (cara).

56. Final crossing? STYX
The River Styx of Greek mythology was the river that formed the boundary between the Earth and the Underworld (or “Hades”). The souls of the newly dead had to cross the River Styx in a ferry boat piloted by Charon. Traditionally, a coin would be placed in the mouths of the dead “to pay the ferryman”.

60. Nation since 1948: Abbr. ISR
The area that is now Israel was ruled by the British after WWI as the British Mandate of Palestine. The British evacuated the area after WWII, largely responding to pressure from both Jewish and Arab nationalist movements. The British Mandate expired on 14 May 1948 and the State of israel was established at the same time. This declaration of a new state was followed by the immediate invasion of the area by four Arab countries and the start of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. A ceasefire was declared after a year of fighting and tension has persisted in the region ever since.

61. Ed. group PTA
Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Eggy dessert ZABAGLIONE
11. La Salle of “ER” ERIQ
15. Occurring at a constant temperature ISOTHERMAL
16. Computer start-up? MINI-
17. Elementary sextet NOBLE GASES
18. Browning product OVEN
19. Older Pevensie sister in “The Chronicles of Narnia” series SUSAN
20. Turned brown, maybe SAUTEED
22. Curling piece STONE
26. Square NERDY
27. “Do wrong to __”: Shak. NONE
30. Attended to bald spots on SODDED
33. Stop BAN
34. University of Miami mascot Sebastian the __ IBIS
35. Climate Reality Project founder AL GORE
36. __ moment AHA
37. Flimflam CON
38. Slap target, informally SKEETER
39. Airline with the EuroBonus frequent flier program SAS
40. Alpine parrot KEA
41. Misses LASSES
42. Salon service TINT
43. Names IDS
44. Slap cause, maybe INSULT
45. Dr. Jones, to Dr. Marcus Brody INDY
46. Mesoamerican crop MAIZE
48. Column that won’t support anything PLUME
50. Involve deeply IMMERSE
53. DeMille specialties EPICS
57. It precedes one NOON
58. Dept. of State employee US DIPLOMAT
62. Secretary of Education Duncan ARNE
63. Like pen pals’ relationships EPISTOLARY
64. Hoot JEER
65. High wind SOPRANO SAX

Down
1. Some reds, for short ZINS
2. Not worth __ A SOU
3. Roaring Twenties hairdos BOBS
4. Ones for the road? ATLASES
5. 1814 treaty site GHENT
6. It may be shaken or pulled LEG
7. He outlived George by 46 years IRA
8. Sacred syllables OMS
9. Dumbarton denials NAES
10. Snow Queen in “Frozen” ELSA
11. Wax theatrical EMOTE
12. Drainage area RIVER BASIN
13. “Help” I NEED A HAND
14. Its capital was Xianyang QIN DYNASTY
21. Bad way to go UNDER
23. Certain Honshu native OSAKAN
24. Words of emphasis NO LESS
25. Moves stealthily EDGES UP
27. “Pink Friday” rapper NICKI MINAJ
28. Baroque wind OBOE D’AMORE
29. Singer who had a 1959 hit with “I Loves You, Porgy” NINA SIMONE
31. “Dish it up!” DO TELL!
32. 1974 hit sung entirely in Spanish ERES TU
38. Foxier SLIER
42. “The Banquet of Cleopatra” painter TIEPOLO
47. __ cards, used in ESP experiments ZENER
49. Dieter’s breakfast MELON
51. Petitions SUES
52. Beantown NHL nickname ESPO
54. “Look at me, __ helpless …”: “Misty” lyric I’M AS
55. Word spoken con affetto CARA
56. Final crossing? STYX
59. Party bowlful DIP
60. Nation since 1948: Abbr. ISR
61. Ed. group PTA

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5 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 5 Sep 15, Saturday”

  1. This was TOUGH!
    Had NINA SIMONE, a given for me.
    Couldn't get CABS (not ZINS) out of my head and after all CUSTARD PIE fit for eggy dessert.
    EDGES in, at UP????
    Aack!
    @Wille D Correct, I didn't like Friday's Wechsler.
    When CIGARETTE BUTTES showed up I just groaned.
    Started with GRIP GRIPES, not GOLF.
    Doesn't matter, couldn't finish anyway.
    DNF today as well.
    I struck out Tue-Sat.
    Maybe I should just hang it up:-(

  2. Tough puzzle.
    About the date of Israel's Declaration of Independence: The British Mandate in Palestine was scheduled to end on May 15th 1948, but as that day was a Saturday (Shabbat – the Jewish day of rest) Ben-Gurion advanced the signing ceremony to 4PM on Friday, May 14th, a few hours before sundown and the start of Shabbat. There was controversy until the last moment as to the name of the new state (Zion? Judah?)and for this reason Israel's first postage stamps (issued Sunday May 16th, 1948) bore the inscription "Do'ar Ivri" ("Hebrew Post") as the designer did not know what the name of the new country would be when the stamps went to press a few days prior to the Declaration of Independence. The stamps are quite valuable now…

  3. Hang in there, Pookie.

    Yes, a tough puzzle. Plenty of misdirection. I finally finished with no errors, but it also took me twice as long as Bill. Some of this stuff I've never even heard of before.

  4. One of the few answers I was sure of from the beginning was the Misty clue. I have now been humming it ALL DAY LONG. Thanks. Now I need to look up another verse to have some variety.
    Bella

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