LA Times Crossword Answers 4 Jan 16, Monday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
10. Belmont Stakes, e.g. RACE
The Belmont Stakes is a horse race held in June each year, at Belmont Park racetrack in Elmont, New York. The Belmont Stakes is the last of the US Triple Crown races, following the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

14. Workplace protection org. OSHA
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in 1970 during the Nixon administration. OSHA regulates workplaces in the private sector and regulates just one government agency, namely the US Postal Service.

16. British prep school ETON
The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders including David Cameron who took power in the last UK general election. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington, George Orwell, and the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming (as well as 007 himself as described in the Fleming novels).

17. Arab League prince EMIR
In English, emir can also be written as emeer, amir and ameer (watch out for those spellings in crosswords!).

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.

20. Canadian flag symbol MAPLE LEAF (loose-leaf)
The current design of the Canadian National Flag, known as “the Maple Leaf”, has been in place since 1965. The design made its first appearance on February 15th of that year, and so that date is celebrated annually as National Flag of Canada Day.

22. “Farewell, mon ami!” ADIEU!
“Adieu” is the French for “goodbye” or “farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God”. The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.

26. After-dinner brandy COGNAC
Cognac is a famous variety of brandy named after the town of Cognac in the very west of France. To be called cognac, the brandy must be distilled twice in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in very specific French oak barrels.

31. “Hold Me” Grammy winner K.T. OSLIN
Singer K. T. Oslin is best known for her string of country hits in the eighties.

32. Rap sheet abbr. AKA
Also known as (aka)

A rap sheet is a criminal record. “Rap” is a slang term dating back to the 1700s that means “blame, responsibility” as in “to take the rap” and “to beat the rap”. This usage morphed into “rap sheet” in the early 1900s.

37. Actor Baldwin ALEC
Alec is the oldest of the acting Baldwin brothers. I think Alec’s big break was playing Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan in “The Hunt for Red October”, but thank goodness that role was taken over by Harrison Ford for the subsequent Jack Ryan movies. Baldwin made a name for himself in recent times playing Jack Donaghy on “30 Rock”, opposite Tina Fey. He has also hosted the sketch show “Saturday Night Live” on more occasions than anyone else (16 times).

41. Honky-__ TONK
A honky-tonk is a bar with musical entertainment, usually country music. The etymology of the term “honky-tonk” seems unclear. The term has evolved to mean any cheap, noisy bar or dance hall.

46. Mojave or Gobi DESERT
The Mojave Desert in the southwest is named after the Native American Mohave tribe. Famous locations within the boundaries of the desert, are Death Valley, Las Vegas, Nevada and the ghost town of Calico, California.

The large desert in Asia called the Gobi lies in northern China and southern Mongolia. The Gobi desert is growing at an alarming rate, particularly towards the south. This “desertification” is caused by increased human activity. The Chinese government is trying to halt the desert’s progress by planting great swaths of new forest, the so called “Green Wall of China”.

47. Two-deck rummy variety CANASTA
The card game called canasta originated in Uruguay apparently, with “canasta” being the Spanish word for “basket”. In the rummy-like game, a meld of seven cards or more is called a canasta.

50. Dylan or Dole BOB
As most of us know, the real name of singer Bob Dylan is Robert Zimmerman. Zimmerman chose that particular stage name because he was greatly influenced by the poetry of the Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas.

Despite all Bob Dole’s success in the world of politics, he is remembered by many as the VP candidate who lost to Walter Mondale (and Jimmy Carter) and the presidential candidate who lost to incumbent Bill Clinton. The man is a true war hero. He joined up in 1942 and fought with the Army’s 10th Mountain Division in Italy. In 1945 he was hit by machine gun fire in his right arm and back Dole was so badly injured that his comrades could only dose him up with morphine, write “M” on his forehead with his own blood (so that another, fatal dose of morphine would not be administered) and continue fighting the battle. Dole had to wait nine hours to be evacuated from the battlefield, and wait another three years before being discharged from hospital back in the States.

51. Hotelier Helmsley LEONA
Leona Helmsley was a high-rolling real estate investor and hotel operator in New York City. She was convicted of income tax evasion in 1989 and sentenced to 16 years in jail. At her trial a witness quoted her as saying “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” No wonder she was known as the Queen of Mean …

58. The Emerald Isle ERIN
“Éire”, is the Irish word for “Ireland”. “Erin” is an anglicized version of “Éire” and actually corresponds to “Éirinn”, the dative case of “Éire”.

Ireland is called the “Emerald Isle” (and described as “green”) because of all that green grass that grows due to the seemingly non-stop rain.

59. Heavenly food MANNA
According to the Book of Exodus, manna was a food eaten by the Israelites as they traveled out of Egypt. It “fell” to Earth during the night six days a week, and was gathered in the morning before it had time to melt.

61. Wealthy, in Juárez RICO
The Mexican city sitting across the border from El Paso is more correctly called Ciudad Juárez. Juárez used to be called El Paso del Norte (the North Pass). It was to be the younger settlement on the northern side of the Rio Grande which would retain the “El Paso” name.

66. Tranquil discipline YOGA
In the West we tend to think of yoga as a physical discipline, a means of exercise that uses specific poses to stretch and strengthen muscles. While it is true that the ancient Indian practice of yoga does involve such physical discipline, the corporeal aspect of the practice plays a relatively small part in the whole philosophy. Other major components are meditation, ethical behavior, breathing and contemplation.

Down
1. Sonnet or haiku POEM
A sonnet is a short poem with varying rhyming schemes but always with 14 lines. The sonnet form has been around at least since the 13th century. The Shakespearean sonnet is composed of three quatrains (4 lines) and a final couplet (2 lines).

A haiku is a very elegant form of Japanese verse. When writing a haiku in English we tend to impose the rule that the verse must contain 17 syllables. This restriction comes from the rule in Japanese that the verse must contain 17 sound units called “moras”, but moras and syllables aren’t the same thing. What the difference is though, is not so clear to me. Here’s an example of a Haiku:

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don’t make sense
Refrigerator

2. West Point initials USMA
West Point is a military reservation in New York State, located north of New York City. West Point was first occupied by the Continental Army way back in 1778, making it the longest, continually-occupied military post in the country. Cadet training has taken place at the garrison since 1794, although Congress funding for a US Military Academy (USMA) didn’t start until 1802. The first female cadets were admitted to West Point in 1976, and today about 15% of all new cadets are women.

4. Hoopster Malone KARL
Karl Malone is a retired professional basketball player who was nicknamed “the Mailman”. Malone played most of his career with the Utah Jazz, from 1985 to 2004.

7. Elbow-to-wrist bone ULNA
The radius and ulna are bones in the forearm. If you hold the palm of your hand up in front of you, the radius is the bone on the “thumb-side” of the arm, and the ulna is the bone on the “pinkie-side”.

8. Sexy photos in women’s mags BEEFCAKE
It’s not really clear how the “cheesecake” came to be used for a provocative picture of a woman. It is known that the term arose in the 1930s, and originally applied to to the covers of “pulp” magazines that used the images of the attractive young females to attract a largely male audience. One theory is that during the depression years, the luscious cheesecake dessert was unattainable, as were the “luscious” models depicted on the magazine covers. The male equivalent of cheesecake is “beefcake”.

9. Ukr. or Estonia, during the Cold War SSR
Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe, a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) before the dissolution of the USSR. In English we often call the country “the” Ukraine, but I am told that we should just say “Ukraine”.

Estonia is one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) and is located in Northern Europe on the Baltic Sea, due south of Finland. Estonia has been overrun and ruled by various empires over the centuries. The country did enjoy a few years of freedom at the beginning of the 20th century after a war of independence against the Russian Empire. However, Estonia was occupied again during WWII, first by the Russians and then by the Germans, and then reoccupied by the Soviets in 1944. Estonia has flourished as an independent country again since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.

10. Preface to Bush Sr.’s “no new taxes” promise READ MY LIPS (loose lips)
President George H. W. Bush used the famous phrase “Read my lips: no new taxes” in an address to the 1988 Republican National Convention. Many believe that the promise was a significant factor in Bush’s victory in the subsequent election. Many also believe that the fact that the president had to agree to an increase in some taxes in 1990 helped Bill Clinton defeat President Bush in 1992.

11. Open-air courts ATRIA
In modern architecture an atrium (plural “atria” or “atriums”) is a large open space usually in the center of a building and extending upwards to the roof. The original atrium was an open court in the center of an Ancient Roman house. One could access most of the enclosed rooms of the house from the atrium.

12. Halley’s __ COMET
Edmond Halley was an English astronomer who lived at the turn of 17th and 18th centuries. In 1705 he declared that comet sightings recorded in 1456, 1531, 1607 and 1682 were in fact observations of the same comet returning to fly by Earth at regular intervals. He predicted that this comet would return in 1758, and he was right, and so the comet was named after him: Halley’s Comet. Sadly, Halley didn’t live long enough to see his prediction come true.

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

27. Capital on a fjord OSLO
Oslo is the capital of Norway. The city of Oslo burns trash to fuel half of its buildings, including all of its schools. The problem faced by the city is that it doesn’t generate enough trash. So, Oslo imports trash from Sweden, England and Ireland, and is now looking to import some American trash too.

A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, both formed as sea level rises. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

29. “America’s Got Talent” host since 2009 NICK CANNON (loose cannon)
Nick Cannon is best-known these days, I think, for hosting the TV show “America’s Got Talent”. Cannon is also a rap artist, comedian and actor. From 2008 until 2015, he was married to the singer Mariah Carey, with whom he has two children.

NBC’s show “America’s Got Talent” is part of a global franchise based in the UK. The original show is called “Britain’s Got Talent”, and the whole franchise is owned by Simon Cowell. The first host of “America’s Got Talent” was Regis Philbin (2006), followed by Jerry Springer (2007-2008). Nick Cannon has been the host since 2009.

38. __ Knox FORT
Fort Knox is actually a US Army base, but it lends its name to the adjacent facility that is more correctly called the United States Bullion Depository. Most of the US gold reserves are in “Fort Knox”, although it isn’t the biggest gold repository in the US. That honor goes to the vault under the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Manhattan. Most of the gold stored in the New York vault belongs to foreign nations and banks.

39. Psychedelic light source LAVA LAMP
The lava lamp was invented in 1960 by a British man, Edward Craven-Walker. The “lava” is a mixture of wax and carbon tetrachloride, floating in a water/glycerol mix. The wax reduces in density as it picks up heat from the incandescent bulb in the lamp’s base. The wax rises, cools, and then sinks to the bottom of the liquid only to be heated again.

43. Emmy winner Neuwirth BEBE
Bebe Neuwirth is a wonderful actress and dancer, very famous for portraying Dr. Lilith Sternin, the wife of Dr. Frasier Crane on “Cheers” and “Frasier”. Neuwirth is a fabulous dancer, having studied ballet at Juilliard. In more recent years she has had starring roles on Broadway, and in 2010 played opposite Nathan Lane in “The Addams Family”. Neuwirth also plays a leading role on the show “Madame Secretary”.

48. Eagle’s nest AERIE
An aerie is the nest of an eagle, and is also known as an “eyrie”.

49. Straight up, cocktailwise NO ICE
Our word “cocktail” first appeared in the early 1800s. The exact origin of the term is not clear, but it is thought to be a corruption of the French word “coquetier” meaning “egg cup”, a container that was used at that time for serving mixed drinks.

54. Crafts website 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.

55. Taboo NO-NO
The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

57. Arcade giant SEGA
Sega is a Japanese video game company headquartered in Tokyo. Sega actually started out 1940 in the US as Standard Games and was located in Honolulu, Hawaii. The owners moved the operation to Tokyo in 1951 and renamed the company to Service Games. The name “Sega” is a combination of the first two letters of the words “Se-rvice” and “Ga-mes”.

Our word “arcade” comes from the Latin “arcus” meaning “arc”. The first arcades were passages made from a series of arches. This could be an avenue of trees, and eventually any covered avenue. I remember arcades lined with shops and stores when I was growing up on the other side of the Atlantic. Arcades came to be lined with lots of amusements, resulting in amusement arcades and video game arcades.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Hockey disk PUCK
5. Blows, as one’s lines FLUBS
10. Belmont Stakes, e.g. RACE
14. Workplace protection org. OSHA
15. Parts in a play ROLES
16. British prep school ETON
17. Arab League prince EMIR
18. Deed holder OWNER
19. Weaponry ARMS
20. Canadian flag symbol MAPLE LEAF (loose-leaf)
22. “Farewell, mon ami!” ADIEU!
23. “Put a __ on it!” LID
24. Prevailing weather CLIMATE
26. After-dinner brandy COGNAC
30. Every 24 hours DAILY
31. “Hold Me” Grammy winner K.T. OSLIN
32. Rap sheet abbr. AKA
33. Speech therapy subject LISP
37. Actor Baldwin ALEC
38. Advertising handout FLIER
40. Wedding vows I DOS
41. Honky-__ TONK
42. Rowboat need OAR
43. High-80s grade B-PLUS
44. Like mountain roads CURVY
46. Mojave or Gobi DESERT
47. Two-deck rummy variety CANASTA
50. Dylan or Dole BOB
51. Hotelier Helmsley LEONA
52. Final details to take care of … and, literally, what the last words of 20-Across and 10- and 29-Down can be LOOSE ENDS
58. The Emerald Isle ERIN
59. Heavenly food MANNA
60. Injured, as a muscle TORE
61. Wealthy, in Juárez RICO
62. In the midst of AMONG
63. Unexpected problem SNAG
64. Sharp-edged KEEN
65. Shopping binge SPREE
66. Tranquil discipline YOGA

Down
1. Sonnet or haiku POEM
2. West Point initials USMA
3. Poker player’s token CHIP
4. Hoopster Malone KARL
5. Play friskily FROLIC
6. Mooed LOWED
7. Elbow-to-wrist bone ULNA
8. Sexy photos in women’s mags BEEFCAKE
9. Ukr. or Estonia, during the Cold War SSR
10. Preface to Bush Sr.’s “no new taxes” promise READ MY LIPS (loose lips)
11. Open-air courts ATRIA
12. Halley’s __ COMET
13. Occur as a result ENSUE
21. Stylish vigor ELAN
22. Have a bug AIL
25. Unreliable witness LIAR
26. Winter wear COAT
27. Capital on a fjord OSLO
28. Secluded valley GLEN
29. “America’s Got Talent” host since 2009 NICK CANNON (loose cannon)
30. Eggs and butter market section DAIRY
34. Sit at a four-way stop, say IDLE
35. Sweet’s opposite SOUR
36. Furtive “Hey!” PSST!
38. __ Knox FORT
39. Psychedelic light source LAVA LAMP
43. Emmy winner Neuwirth BEBE
45. Land between Can. and Mex. USA
46. Prescription amount DOSAGE
47. Supermarket staffer CLERK
48. Eagle’s nest AERIE
49. Straight up, cocktailwise NO ICE
50. Good, in France BONNE
53. “Want the light __ off?” ON OR
54. Crafts website ETSY
55. Taboo NO-NO
56. Really dull time DRAG
57. Arcade giant SEGA
59. Pas’ mates MAS

Return to top of page